Another Side
by Adrian King1
Summary: The darkness surrounded me as I woke up. Questions and answers followed as I opened my eyes. But without knowing who I am I found myself in a world that shouldn't exist and already with a group of people that says I'm in their peerage. What has happened? Why? What will I do? For now, I may as well get stronger. Because strength means everything in this world.
1. Awake and Alive

Disclaimer: I don't own Highschool DxD, neither do I own any of the multiple resources that I will use for the story in the form of (but not limited to) references.

**Arrival Arc – Awake and Alive**

Darkness and numbness.

That is what first came to my mind. All my body felt like a hand that's been sat on for far too long and at the same time there was no energy in it, as if I had run to the point of exhaustion… a couple of times. Just trying to open my eyes was like trying to push a car up hill.

The most I managed was to get a tiny little bit of light an-

"-t wake up… loss… stray…" A voice interrupted everything that could be on my mind. Seemed to be male, couldn't distinguish much more than that and a word here and there that didn't connect with anything.

"-wait… attacks… stopping…" Female this time, I tried to get more information, but my hearing seemed to turn on and off on its own. Until everything went black and my ears stopped working altogether.

The next time I was conscious or semi-conscious there were no voices. The only way I know I was awake (or dreaming for all I knew) was because I heard rain and wind against a window. Still couldn't move more than a tiny little shake of my fingers and letting a little light pass through my eyelids.

Don't know how much I was like that, could be a couple of minutes or hours. Difficult to tell when you barely feel anything. I think I felt something pressing on my left side, maybe, who knows. And I passed out again.

I woke up again. I could feel my body, that's good. Tried to open my eyes, almost blinded myself with the sudden light, not as good, but that meant my eyes work somehow. I'm starting to function again, I guess. Bit by bit I started to move my body, just trying to get it used to… well, not lying on the bed all the time. _'Oh, I was in a bed, good to know, don't want to know how I would feel if it was the ground.'_

My eyes started to get used to do their job again. Wooden roof, what little I see of wall is a pale gray, almost white. I got to turn to the sides with effort, not being able to move was getting annoying real fast.

I was in a queen size bed. There is a night table on each side with arm lamps pointing at the bed. There seems to be a painting or picture on the wall above the bed, all I get to see from where I am is tones of red. A drawer in front of the bed. A window on my left side and a door on the right corner in front of me.

I let myself fall flat on the bed again.

'_Where the hell am I? Last I remember I was in-'_

There's where I started to panic. I didn't remember where I came from. No address, no city or town name, no phone number.

'… _What's my name?'_

My mind went blank after that thought. I didn't remember anything. In a way at least, I remembered a lot of things, just not personal things. I knew what things were, but I didn't remember seen them, how to talk but I didn't remember ever talking or hearing someone talk. I didn't know how old I was, when I was born, or what the date was supposed to be.

The furthest I remember is-

"Looks like someone decided to wake up." That voice, the male one. "I wouldn't try to move too much, your wounds healed but the blood doesn't recover as fast. I'll bring some water." _'Thanks, whoever you are, thanks.'_ I hadn't even noticed that my throat feels like I tried to drink sand.

After a minute he came back, he's wearing a red suit with a tie. Short black hair combed backwards and round glasses over his eyes. _'Red eyes'_, I saw when he got close to help me drink from the glass. Oh my, that felt like I was drinking the nectar of the gods. _'I don't think I will say water is too plain anytime soon.'_

"I'm sure you have a lot of questions," He says in a polite tone. _'You have no idea.'_ "But I would suggest resting for the time being until you can at least sit to have a conversation." _'That's… a pretty good point.'_ "I'll leave you to it, maybe next time you'll be able to eat something, that would help." _'Certainly.'_

And with that he left. And I let my eyes close and my mind wander. At first, I tried to remember things. But in the end, I didn't find anything, just information but nothing else, it was like my mind had the colors but didn't have any pictures made with them. But before I could get frustrated or angry, I fell asleep again. Didn't even realize I exhausted myself doing that little bit of activity.

The next time I could move better. I lifted my hand in front of my eyes.

'_Pale white skin, probably because of the blood loss'_ Didn't even know how to feel about not knowing what my natural skin color was.

I managed to sit up with a bit of effort. On the floor there was a cream-colored carpet, I noticed. Another glass of water and a book on the night table. There was a door on the front wall on the left that I hadn't seen before.

'_He moved through the other door, so I guess a bathroom?' _And I hoped it was because I had to go, and urgently. Couldn't even remember the last time walking to the bathroom was so trying. I didn't even manage to quirk my lips at how accurate that was.

Entering the bathroom, I saw the sink on my right, a bath on my left and a shower further in, a door to a balcony in the middle of both. The toilet was next to the sink. After being done I looked through the glass door that led outside.

I was in the second floor, after a little clearing there was nothing but forest until it ended in a mountain in the horizon. That's were my legs started complaining and trembling. I dragged myself to the bed again.

Bless whoever left the water. I sat on the bed and took the book. Didn't feel like going back to sleep and there was nothing else to do so…

I guess you could say it was a history book. The thing is it was the history of a place called Underworld that was inhabited mostly by devils and fallen angels. Yeah, strange. But hey, who am I to critique fiction these days, whenever 'these days' is.

It was interesting I will admit, if a bit odd sometimes. I was somewhere in the middle of the second chapter when the man came to see me again.

"Awake again I see." I just nodded, if I had to guess my throat would have hurt like hell if I tried to talk. "And still a bit early to talk, I guess. Never mind, I'll bring something for you to eat and another glass of water." And as he came, he left. Not that I minded, I was starving.

I continued my reading and after a while he came back with a tray. Soup and a glass of water. _'Anything is good right now.'_

"I'm glad you took to read that book; I'll just say that I will be useful in the near future." I just looked at him, he said that like someone says a book about math will be useful. Then I looked at the book, a book about Hell basically. I looked back at him and raised an eyebrow. "You'll understand soon enough."

'_Please don't tell me I ended up in a sect or something like that.'_ I thought once he left the room.

After eating I didn't know what to do

The book didn't seem nearly as good to read now as it did before. But I ended up reading anyway. I didn't want to risk not knowing something when the time to talk with this people came. Reading the book 'could' be useful, and I had nothing better to do.

And that's how I spent the time. Night came after a couple of hours and I was just finishing the fifth chapter. As I said, it was interesting. But what the man had said was still bothering me.

Before I could start the next chapter, he came back with another tray. Soup, again. He just looked at me, at the book, and then left with the tray of the previous meal. But not before I could nod thanks for the food. At least I wanted to be polite, you never know when that can save you. Especially when you don't have any idea about anything that's happening, as was my case.

After eating I read another chapter and went to sleep.

It took me two days more to finish the book, and I was getting an idea of what happened. And let me tell you, it didn't make me feel any better. Not in the least.

I signaled the man, Dovray, he had said his name was, that I had finished it. He came back with another one, this time about Evil Pieces and the Rating Games. Yeah… real subtle. But in my opinion, it was better that way. I could get my head around things better reading than hearing it.

While doing this I was starting a little plan you could say. And it was about keeping my mouth shut. They would come talk to me about these things, they had to sooner or later. And when the time came, I would play the mute. I was guessing that if I didn't talk at all they would have to talk more.

So that's what I had. Lame plan? Well excuse me for being an idiot.

After that book came one that you could call 'introduction to the supernatural'. It had a bit of information about a lot of mythologies and the like. From Angels to Valkyries to some intelligent creatures like the Sphinx.

After finishing that one I went back to the previous ones to read up what I thought was important again. For example, the reincarnating system, the characteristics of each piece, etc. Back in the history bock I read again the parts about sacred gears, family magics of devils, etc.

"I'm guessing you are done reading?"

I glanced up from the books to see Dovray on the door. I just nodded. _'Let's get this over with.'_

He nodded back and left. After a few moments he came back with a girl. She had long blonde hair, with a hint of green. Speckles over dark pink eyes, and an emotionless mask on her face. Her gaze felt like it could freeze me anytime. She was wearing the clothes a noblewoman with a short skirt and high boots. Furthermore, her breasts seemed to have a gravity of their own to attract my ey-

Almost hitting myself in the face I decided to keep my eyes on hers, even if I felt like I would freeze any moment.

"I hope I don't have to explain a lot, considering what you have read." She said, with a tone as cold as her gaze. I just kept my eyes on hers without saying anything. Because really, what was I supposed to say to that? "Then I won't waste time, as you might have guessed, you are part of my peerage" _'Yeah, figures' _"more specifically, my Queen."

I had to take a second to reboot my brain. Did she just say…

I looked at her incredulously with a raised eyebrow.

"Now I'm guessing you want to know why I would use such an important piece with such an important role on someone I don't know," I just nodded slowly, still trying to process what she said. "Simple, if I wanted to use any other piece to reincarnate you, I would have to reach a value of six."

That means either two knights, two bishops, two rooks or six pawns aside from the queen, so…

"And I would prefer not to lose the number advantage, while having someone so powerful that you would have to use eight pawns for example sounds great, I think it's a waste. True those people would be great from the start, yes, but let's say I get eight people with eight pawns and train hard enough, then it wouldn't be surprising if they could beat the eight-pawn person without much effort would it."

I think about it for a bit, what she says makes sense. But still, for any other case I wouldn't even be thinking about it. However, this was the Queen piece, the most important aside from the King, the most powerful, most versatile, and the right hand of the King. In a way that person was a second King.

That's why I still-

"And while that is mostly why I did what I did I have other reasons that you may come to know in the future." _'Hmm, so there's more, I guess it's like she says, I'll know when I have to.'_

Now, some may be thinking 'What the hell is wrong with you, you are a slave, you are trapped with this cold faced bitch' and blah blah blah. But think about it. What can I do? Become a stray? Nah, no way I am going out there on my own to be hunted.

'_I'll take my chances, if it turns out awful then… I'll cross that bridge when I get there.'_

Others may think that something must be wrong with me take it so well to not being human anymore. But that's quite an easy thing to do when you don't remember being human in the first place. The only way that I know that I was human is that all this information was not in the things that were already in my head. That or I could be another species that was raised as human, but that's not here nor there.

"You already know my only bishop as of now, Dovray Demiurge" She said pointing at him, "You'll get to know my rook when you are capable of walking by yourself, and I'm your King, Seekvaira Agares."

I half-bowed from where I was in the bed at the introduction. _'Agares, I'll have to look it up in the book later.'_

"I'll leave for now, I'm sure you need some time to process everything." And with that she left, Dovray following right behind her.

'_I'm more into this shit than I thought, and that is saying something. I almost think I would prefer the sect…'_

The next day came soon enough. The sun hadn't even raised yet. I walked to the drawer and got a set of clothes. A dark green shirt with black jeans and black sneakers. With that I went to the bathroom brushed my teeth and showered. While drying myself I looked at the mirror.

I don't have to tell you how strange it was the first time. Looking at yourself like you would a stranger. I had short black hair that I left messy if a bit flattened to not look like I just woke up. I had green eyes and my skin seemed to be almost completely white by default.

Once I was done, I left the bedroom for the first time. And I realized how lazy I sounded but hey, I had to inform myself. It's not that the books were amazing. Not at all. Shut up.

The sun was starting to rise so I got a somewhat clear view of everything, besides the night vision thanks to being a devil. The hall was much the same style as the room. There where a couple more doors on it but with all closed, I wasn't one to go around opening them at random. I wouldn't want to test Seekvaira's proficiency in Ice magic and see if her glare can literally freeze someone.

I reached the stairs at the end of the hall and went down. I found myself in a big sitting room, the walls were almost entirely made of windows, safe a wooden column here and there, so you could see the forest outside in all it's glory. A beige corner sofa sat opposite to the walls with a coffee table in front of it.

Some books were on the table, some about magic that I'm quite sure were out of my league and a couple of sacred gear encyclopedias. The last ones got my attention, one was an introduction with what was known of the sacred gear system and the more known ones, such as the Longinus. The others seemed to be from a series of books that detailed every sacred gear known and what they did.

I guess they had been informing themselves so that they would know what I had. If they didn't know me before. What I would not know considering my lack of memories. But on the other hand, they had introduced themselves without problem or with me asking. So, I guess they didn't know me.

Which brought me to one of the things I couldn't get my head around. I was Seekvaira's Queen. I went over what that entailed and confirmed that a Queen is the second-in-command on the peerage. He or she is always there for the King, always present to help with anything, always taking part on decisions and accompanying the King.

Seekvaira didn't look like the stupid or impulsive type. So, the only guess I have is that she needs a strong peerage, no matter what. For what purpose I don't know, but it's the only thing that made sense. She needed both, quality and quantity for whatever her reasons where. And to get that she made a gamble. She reincarnated me with her queen in order to not lower her numbers using several of her other pieces.

But with that came another thought. My value was six. I did feel powerful but that was most likely due to the Queen piece in and on itself. I may have big reserves for magic, that could be it, it's not like I know how to feel that. Or I could have a really high-tier sacred gear or even a good mid-tier. Or maybe Seekvaira was not that strong so the pieces held less value. That was an option and an explanation as to why she needed a good peerage.

My train of thought was interrupted by Dovray coming in from the hall in the first floor,_ 'I guess his bedroom is downstairs'_. If he was surprised to see me sitting on the sofa with the introductory book on sacred gears in my hands, he didn't show it.

"Good morning." I nodded at him, acknowledging his salute. "I guess you will have breakfast with us today, good to know." And after that he left to where I guess the kitchen is.

I continued my reading for a while more until I heard another set of steps, this time coming from the stairs. I looked up to see my King coming down. The only sign that she saw me was a brief nod in my direction and she left to where Dovray went.

Marking the book to continue my reading later I left after them and found myself in the dining room. There wasn't much on it, a big window on the right side and a table big enough to fit maybe two whole peerages, which I guess was the idea maybe.

Sitting on the head of the table was Seekvaira. I walked over in her direction and sat on her right, as a Queen would do. I hoped that would show her that I acknowledged the situation I was in.

With a nod in my direction she started to talk.

"I'm guessing you must have a lot of questions, feel free to ask them." The only thing she got was silence and my eyes on hers. "I see." She probably didn't, but she had two options to talk or not to talk, she chose the first. "Very well, I'll start with informing you that we are in a very secluded place right know. It's positioned right in the middle of the territory my family owns in the US. It covers a couple of towns in each direction but there's not much supernatural activity on neither of them. That's why the territory is big compared to those of other devils that may be as small as a single town, that's because those places have a greater concentration of supernatural activity." I nodded, all made sense so far. Dovray came and set the table.

I looked at the three plates on the table, and then at Seekvaira with a raised eyebrow, _'Didn't she say that she had a rook too?'_.

"You'll meet my rook after eating," Was all she said to my unasked question. I shrugged and waited for her to continue. "As you may or may not have guessed I need a strong peerage for the future, hence your position as my Queen. I intend to have a full peerage of sixteen people."

I hummed, that was certainly ambitious, getting said peerage was another story. And I'm not sure how smart she was if my reincarnation was anything to go by.

"Aside for the power that a peerage like that would give me with enough strength in its members there's another reason for my goal." I tilted my head telling her to continue. "With enough accomplishments on my name I'll be able to maintain my freedom."

Now that got my attention, she was from a noble family. How was it that her freedom was at risk?

"As you may know the number of noble families that survived the war was low. To keep said families alive some of them have been forced to arrange marriages between heirs."

'_Oh, I get where you are going. And I don't like it at all.'_

"The Gremory heiress of my generation is object of one such arrangement. I on the other hand got a chance to have a say, at least for now. In two years, there will be a meeting between important heirs of this generation. After that meeting there will be a competition of sorts between said heirs and their peerages. If me and my peerage do well enough during that I will be able to escape a forced marriage for good."

I looked at my plate. Dovray had come during the explanation and set the food for us while taking the seat in front of me. That made sense. She needed to get a strong peerage for this competition.

Two years.

That's when it struck me. She had two years and a peerage with just a bishop and a rook. Two years sounded like a lot of time. But thinking about it, two years to get a group of 13 people to be loyal, not to mention strong, to participate in a competition that decides if you are free or not.

She was getting desperate. That's why she used her Queen on me. I guess her last resort would probably be starting to reincarnate normal people with her pawns. I didn't like that plan at all. But in her situation, no matter how smart she looked, she could, and probably would, do something rash if she had no other option.

I started eating with looking at them while thinking about what my foreseeable future was. This competition would probably be Rating Games of some sort. We would have to be stronger, I don't know their strength level, but if mine is anything to go by then we really needed training.

Maybe I had Main Character syndrome, because I didn't feel like letting this girl get wrapped up in an arranged marriage that she seemed to hate the sole idea of. If this is a story, I just hope it's one with a happy ending.

And if I was going to be part of this peerage, as the Queen nonetheless, then I needed to communicate. They had given me a lot of information. Hell, Seekvaira had probably told me one of the most important things for her, something that she probably wasn't telling everyone she came across.

No matter that I was her Queen, I was still a stranger for them, for all they knew I could go stray at a moment's notice. But they wanted, no, _needed_ me to trust them. And as far as I could tell, I could give them a chance, not like there was somewhere I could go, that I remembered that is. So, unless I suddenly got my memories back or they proved that they didn't deserve my trust, I could give it to them to some extent.

I had been thinking what I would call myself if my memories didn't come back. I had the information of a book in my head, one about a boy that found himself part of a secret world underground from one day to the other. Seemed fitting.

"Seth." All sound on the table stopped and they turned to face me. "You can call me Seth, nice to meet you."

**Author Note: I'm new to this writing thing, so any mistakes you think I made feel free to point them out. Also I'm not even near the point of knowing this story to the smallest detail, so if you think I don't follow cannon point it and I'll change it if it's not an intentional thing.**


	2. Here We Are

Disclaimer: I don't own Highschool DxD, neither do I own any of the multiple resources that I will use for the story in the form of (but not limited to) references.

**Author Note: Well, this is embarrassing, if you have already read this chapter then ignore it, there's little difference. Once I uploaded the chapter the first time I noticed a stupid little mistake and I just _had_ to correct it. And now here I am, panicking because I don't see the chapter correcting itself and it doesn't show on the update on the side.**

**Maybe this is just me not understanding how the site works or panicking for nothing, but anyway I'll delete the previous update and post a new one, sorry for those that read it the first time.**

**Arrival Arc – Here We Are**

"_You can call me Seth, nice to meet you."_

"Nice to meet you too Seth," Didn't seem like she would ask for a surname, thank Maou. "As you probably already noticed, we are a bit pressed for time." I nodded, indeed, we needed at least a couple of members more to be able to do something decent. "So I'll introduce you to my Rook and then we can go deeper with your… studies."

Looked like there were many more books were the ones that I read and the ones on the sitting room came from. Good. I needed information on this world, and I needed it now. I felt like not knowing everything I could would get me killed sooner rather than later.

Once we all finished the food she led me outside through a door on the sitting room. I noticed that I really liked the forest, I couldn't keep my eyes off of it. But I needed to meet my other comr-

I froze.

'_That's not… That can't be…'_

I'm pretty sure my eyes if I opened my eyes just a tiny little bit more they would have fallen from their sockets. There lying next to the house like a sleeping dog, was a creature that would cause hysteria in the underworld just by being noticed. A creature that the history book described as the true monster of the Underworld. It said that one of these creatures entered a battlefield during the Great War and it took the combined forces of Devils, Angels and Fallens to take it out. And afterwards the armies retreated because of the damages.

A Behemoth.

It looked like a big infernal wolf with a pair of horns as long as my arms pointing ahead. Spikes protruded from it's joints and its fangs and horn looked like they could go through a limb of mine without even feeling resistance. It's dark brown fur was said to be impossible to damage without the use of something on the level of a holy or demonic sword, or some heavy magic attacks.

I started sweating bullets.

It stirred and stood up, noticing our presence. _'Well, life was good while it lasted.'_ I was six feet tall, that thing was a foot taller and double its height on length.

I turned to look at Seekvaira. She was smiling. _Freaking_ smiling. I took a deep breath. A couple of times.

"Your Rook?" I asked, the behemoth just walked up to Seekvaira and when she put her hand up started licking it. I blinked. _'Is this monster really acting like a dog? It's happening.'_ She was now petting its head just above the horn between the eyes. _'Is that its version of a purr?' _I had already given up common sense when she decided to answer my question.

"Yes, meet Iorek, my mutated Rook, a baby behemoth." That explained it's size. But it didn't keep me from looking at her incredulously anyway. If this girl had a behemoth in her peerage, why the hell was she worried? With that thing alone she should be able to deal wi- "He is also flawed. He is half the size of a normal cub. Also he is not as resistant to damage. That's why I was able to take him in my peerage without dying. He was abandoned by its family."

That explained pretty much everything, but it did little to make me feel less amazed or frightened. I kept looking at them. The creature, Iorek, looked sad all of a sudden. _'Did it understand what she said?'_

"It's still amazing." I said sincerely. It- _He _definitely understood, because he ran up to me and tackled me into the ground and started licking my face. Meanwhile I was just trying not to die with it's fangs so near something as important as my face.

I started awkwardly patting the sides of his head and after a while it seemed to calm down. That didn't stop me from petting it like Seekvaira had before. After the initial shock and everything. I thought I found my favorite member of the peerage. There are very few things that don't manage to be adorable while acting as a puppy. Obviously a baby behemoth wasn't in that group.

"Now, follow me to the library, there you should be able to continue studying our world and how it works." She said signaling me to follow her.

"Wait for me here, I'll come back in a minute."I said to Iorek. What? I really enjoyed playing with the little… eeh, _big _guy. If this is how having a dog feels I'd definitely get one. He lowered his head at that, and I was really tempted to ask Seekvaira to show me the library latter. But it was better to get it over with.

I waved at Iorek before getting into the house behind Seekvaira. I followed her up to the second floor. As we made our way over to the library she started telling me what would be best to learn first. Etiquette and politics for starters, so that I would actually be able to do my job as her Queen. _'Does it ever get easy to refer to myself as Queen?' _She also advised me to read up on Devils specifically, which I already planned doing. And after that to read up on magic and sacred gears, which was also on the plans.

The library was actually in the door opposite to mine. That was nice. It wasn't the biggest library ever, but there was nothing to complain about. It was twice the size of my room, three quarters was shelves alone, and the free space was occupied by a couple of desks with lamps. I also noticed that every room so far had really big windows allowing us to see the forest that surrounded the house, which was good, I liked the landscape.

"That door leads to my study, I'm usually there or practicing magic outside. Just in case you need anything. Dovray, acts as the butler, so he is usually inside the house. In the afternoons he goes out for a couple of ours to maintain the detection spells and traps that he has set over the territory so if you don't find him is probably because of that."

"Over all the territory?" I asked incredulously.

"Look up the Demiurge family while you are here." Was what she answered with before going into her study. Which is what I did. It took me a while but I found a book on devil clans. Soon I had looked up both the Agares and the Demiurge families.

The Agares was the second highest ranking clan of the 72 pillars, which I'll admit was impressive. They also owned a floating city, Agreas, where the crystals used to make the Evil Pieces were found. They also had the unique trait of being able to use Time magic. If that isn't badass I don't know what is.

The Demiurge on the other hand were part of the Extra Demons faction, which is to say that they weren't part of Ars Goetia. They didn't really have a clan trait but they specialized in magical traps so much that it was considered a trait on its own. Not as amazing as freaking _Time_ magic, but if it allowed him to monitor the whole territory it was amazing enough.

Once I was done reading that I left the book where I found it, I would come back to it when I finished reading what was essential. However, it was still early morning, and thinking that I went to my new best friend, Iorek. He was where I saw him the first time, curled up against the wall of the house. He perked up once I came near him. _'So he is guarding or something like that, huh?'_

"Hey Iorek, want to go for a walk?" For a second I thought he teleported right in front of me and started bouncing around. He really liked to walk around or maybe he didn't get to do much, with Seekvaira in her study most of the day and Dovray being busy. So I made it my duty, at least in the mornings to give him something to do. Besides I had a plan.

With the baby behemoth running around me I started a jog through the forest, wasn't really worried. Dovray's defenses should be good enough, and I decided not to go too much in, in case I fell in one of the traps, that would be… embarrassing. Besides, I had yet to test the speed enhancement of the Queen piece, the strength would have to wait until I found something to actually test it with, maybe lift a big rock or something. I could punch trees, but that simply would not do for training if a I started breaking them, so that was for later.

Looked like I wasn't that fit before arriving here. Iorek had no problem keeping up with my boosted speed and he was a Rook, not exactly known for their speed. But while behemoths were not know for their speed they were not exactly slow, so there's that to keep my ego from crumbling.

Yeah, a little speed training in the mornings with Iorek would be good. Not only did I really need it but it also looked like it would do wonders for the poor pupp- I mean, behemoth, he really looked like he was enjoying himself. And I have to admit, I was too, couldn't help but smile when he came near me every few minutes to try and get me to go faster.

I think I was on that for an hour or two when I decided to head back. Until I realized that I didn't see the house anymore and couldn't remember where it was. I really wanted to kick myself.

"Hey Iorek, do you think you could help me get back to the house?" I asked tentatively.

He barked with what I guess was an affirmation. _'__S__eriously, stop being so adorable, doesn't fit with __the__ 'creature of nightmares' I read about.'_ I thought with a grin on my face.

After a while we were back at the house, and I bid my new training buddy farewell and went inside. Then I went to the kitchen, which I guessed was on the other door of the dinning room, I was right, and got myself a glass of water. After getting to my room, stretching a bit, I decided to take a bath, I was covered in sweat because of the running.

Half an hour later I was on the library, already studying a book about the politics of the Underworld and I have to say, it was _boooooring._ I expected it to be boring, but that didn't make the read any easier. I just hoped that that one book would suffice.

And like that I spent another week, in the morning I would have breakfast with Seekvaira and Dovray. Later I would go run around with Iorek, I confirmed with our Bishop what part of the forest was clear of traps and the like. Turns out that it would be difficult for me to reach the point where those start, but I decided to no go too far and instead we run in circles around the house after putting good distance from there. Devil stamina and Queen speed enhancement was really a blessing, it felt amazing to just run through the forest. Iorek seemed to agree with me.

During one of the runs we ran into a really big rock. It was double the size of Iorek, I really suffered to lift it, but that ended up being my strength training. Once I started to get used to the weight I would work on moving it to the house, just to up the training.

After that came lunch with everyone again and then reading. The first week went into etiquette and politics as planed. Dovray helped me get used to everything on the etiquette department and I had an idea of how the Underworld government worked now. Then there was dinner, a little of free time (usually just casual reading on the library or playing with Iorek a bit), sleep and repeat.

Half-way through my third week on the house I was studying magic. The short description of demonic magic is that it works with imagination. Once you read that you think, 'wow, easy, amazing', yeah… no.

The long description is that demonic magic works through power, focus and intent. You need to concentrate on what you want to happen, if you get distracted in the middle of the spell then at best you lose the energy you put into it already, at worst it blows you up.

Furthermore, the less idea about what you want to happen you have, the more power you have to put into it to make it happen. Let's say you want to make fire, you have no idea how but you want to make it happen anyway, it'll cost you ten of energy. If you know that you need oxygen, fuel and heat to make fire then you could use your energy as fuel and a bit of heat to start the fire, that would cost you five of energy. That's the theory, from there it varies on a lot of things.

Obviously, doing that process for every spell you use would require a lot of concentration and comprehension work from the caster. That's why most accomplished wizards are really intelligent, their minds have an easier time doing the process through focus rather than energy. There are still energy powerhouses here and there but those are exceptions rather than the rule.

And no, I'm not expanding on these rather than politics because it's more interesting. Not at all.

I was on these when I heard activity outside. That was strange. It had always been quite ever since I woke up. Seekvaira was rarely around save for drinking a cup of tea while reading on the sitting room or going to play with Iorek. Most of the time she is in her study, if I had to guess, studying, working and doing contracts.

She said I will start with the later activity when I get a familiar either in a week or in a month or so, depending on when she managed to get on the rotation with the familiar master. She also said that some devils make newly reincarnated devils distribute the fliers themselves at first. But for her that is a waste of the servants time. Why have your peerage member do something like that for hours when you can start training them? Maybe it's just us that are training centered people but I agree with her wholeheartedly. It wasn't just that I didn't want to go around giving fliers, not at all.

And Dovray usually went around maintaining the house or disappeared to see if the traps and detection spells were holding up, I guessed in the time that he was out he was also doing contracts. Hadn't really asked him that last bit.

So usually the most noise that I heard in the house was when they talked to each other, or when I talked to Seekvaira about what I had been studying, either asking her about something or she wanting to know how I was doing. Dovray on the other hand usually helped me too, but after the etiquette lessons we haven't talked that much.

What can I say, we are a serious no-nonsense bunch. Except when Iorek was around, the mascot of the group really melted our hearts.

But right now it seemed more serious. When I got out of the library I heard Dovray talking to Seekvaira, yes, definitely serious talking. By the time I got to the sitting room all I saw was a flash of the transportation circle. They were gone. I went out and Iorek was still there. He looks uneasy, that didn't really help me calm down.

I went inside and got the book I was reading. With it under my arm I went outside, sat down besides Iorek and started reading. That seemed to help him a bit, which in return helped me. A couple of chapters later I saw the light of the circle again coming out through the window. I marked the page and went inside, the baby behemoth following me until the door.

They looked ok, good. I stared at them for a bit before speaking.

"Something happened?" Seekvaira didn't look like she wanted to explain, or talk at all, she looked positively murderous. I turned around to look at Dovray, still didn't feel like knowing if she could freeze me.

"Someone has been attacking people in our territory for some time now. We haven't been able to get them in time." He said, the last bit seems to hurt his pride. Makes sense, we use his traps and detection spells to look over the territory.

I glanced at Seekvaira when a thought went through my head. _'Of course.' _Not only is someone messing around in her territory, whoever it is also makes her look bad. That doesn't help her impress her parents to escape a marriage.

"Do this victims have something in common?" I asked them, they looked at each other. I tried my best to not look offended. Yeah, I probably didn't look reliable at all.

"Not that we know of." Seekvaira answered this time. She was visibly trying to calm herself.

"What do they do to the victims?"

"Always a hole in the chest the size of the heart, from there each victim seems to have holes in random parts of their bodies."

'_Doesn't sound pretty to see. Wait...' _ I had woken up really messed up, Dovray said that I had lost a lot of blood. They said this has gone on for a while.

"Was this how you found me?" They exchanged another look. _'Oh, so it was because of that.'_

"Yes." Answered the King. "So you don't remember." Yeah, I hadn't told them I don't remember anything, as good a time as any I guessed. "The closest we have been to trap them was when we found you, in the end they managed to run away before we got there. I had just enough time to decide to reincarnate you."

"Well, thank you for that" And I meant it, I certainly didn't want to die any time soon. "I don't remember anything before waking up on that room." I said signaling upstairs. "If I was your only clue why didn't you ask." They were both staring at me, neither seemed eager to answer.

"We thought that you just didn't remember the attack. And that you weren't fond of your life for how easily you took to the reincarnation, it happens sometimes."

"I… see." _'I guess I can understand that __and it explains why they weren't that surprised that I didn't talk.__'_ "Then… maybe the attack is the reason I don't remember anything. But that doesn't seem to help here, or does that tell you anything." Dovray shook his head, Seekvaira seemed to be thinking pretty hard about something.

For a while we stayed on the sitting room just thinking, until the Bishop left saying that he'd make some tea for everyone. Seekvaira and I sat on the sofa, still thinking.

"The victims seem random, but that may be because we are seen this from the wrong perspective." She says finally when Dovray came back, we both looked at her. "The only thing that I think can connect everyone would be Sacred Gears."

I took a second to process that. True, if the attacks were random it could mean just that, but thinking like that didn't help. On the other hand, all the targets having Sacred Gears made sense too. And that is something that we can confirm to some extend, I just needed to see if I had one. Easier said than done though.

"So until we can see if I have a Sacred Gear, we still have nothing." I said quietly. I didn't like it, and neither did they for the looks in their faces. "Guess I'll leave magic for later and I'll start reading on Sacred Gears."

"You do that and I'll see if there is something else that help us confirm this for sure, or point another direction, or tell us something about your memories." We nodded at each other and once we finish we left the sitting room. She went to her study and I went outside to tell Iorek the news. Maybe I was being silly, talking to the baby behemoth, but he seemed to understand us when we talked. He certainly looked calmer when I finished the explanation. After that I went to the library.

The next day before breakfast I was sitting on the dinning room waiting for the food. Seekvaira wasn't there yet, and Dovray was in the kitchen.

From what I found there were several ways to awaken a sacred gear. One of them was by being exposed to difficult situations, be it stressful, frightening or down right deadly experiences. Obviously that's not my go-to method. Second was simply by training, the book said that with enough development on the body the Sacred Gear might manifest on itself, and since I was already working on that I decided to up my training a bit. Then there were a bunch of methods, but those work mainly on specific gears, and we didn't have time for that.

And then there's the definite method. Yeah, a method that works with all of them, but _of course_ it had to have a drawback. You see, Sacred Gears are connected to the soul of the user, that's why subspecies exist, the theory is that all gears are given to a soul that is compatible. But through life some of those souls may be changed because either life messed you up or some other reason. That's when the Sacred Gear adapts to the change on your soul.

But I digress. The method was plain old meditation. Through this, I could try to search inside myself and look for my Sacred Gear to awaken it. The problem? Well, it could take me a few seconds or a lifetime. Yeah, not really encouraging. I would give it a go anyway, not like I had something better to try. So I'd do that after dinner for a couple of hours.

All of this may have been related to why I lost my memories too. Why you ask? Simple, if this people attacked me because of a Sacred Gear then maybe they targeted _the_ Sacred Gear, and not me, then they could have messed up with it, which means they could have messed up with my soul. Yeah, sounds lovely doesn't it?

While I followed those thoughts Seekvaira seated on the head of the table and Dovray finished setting up the table. While eating I explained to them what I found, my theories and what I'd start doing to try and awaken my possible but not confirmed Sacred Gear.

"Sounds like a good plan." Said Seekvaira giving me an approving nod. "It also matches with what I found myself so that's somewhat comforting. Also, taking into account the injuries produced I think that they may be targeting the Sacred Gears as you said. On that note, your injuries were on your chest, and forearms, if that helps with anything." _'__Maybe, maybe not, good to know anyway I guess.__'_ I thought to myself while nodding.

"The thing is, if they are targeting Sacred Gear users, how do they find them?" I asked, because that's something that came to my mind several times while searching information. As far as I saw, it's really difficult to tell if someone has one, and that's if it's awakened. If the Sacred Gear is dormant then it's impossible to tell unless you had something like the Boosted Gear that gave you the aura of a dragon.

"Maybe a Sacred Gear that detects them, it's the only thing that comes to my mind." Said Dovray. _'Yeah, that could be.'_ And I was willing to go with his reasoning, he was the one specialized in detection spells. Seemed like Seekvaira thought the same just nodding as an answer.

And after that I started my new routine, exercise of speed and strength on company with the gigantic puppy, Iorek, have lunch, study, this time on Sacred Gears, dinner, and meditation. And let me tell you, that last one is nothing like they picture it on the books. It was just me trying to clear my mind and teach it to feel something it had never felt before and I had no idea what I was looking for. Yeah, that was gonna take a long time.

It had been a week and a half since then, the physical training was certainly doing it's job. I was nowhere near a toned body, but I had noticed the difference between before and after during the training, and that was something. In the study department, I was simply reading the encyclopedias with info on all Sacred Gears, but that's gonna take a while, so I was switching between that and magic books.

Now, to important stuff, meditation… What can I say that I haven't said already, it's gonna take a while. Oh, I'm not saying that I had no progress, I had some, just… not enough. At least I got to the point where I could clear my mind. If I have to try and explain how it feels I would say that is like when you are half-asleep. That moment when your mind switches off but you are definitely awake. It's a strange feeling, one moment I was thinking about whatever, or trying to clear my mind and the next thing I know there's nothing. And then my mind switches on and I notice that I passed an hour like that.

Still hadn't felt anything special on that state, and that didn't help my peace of mind. Luckily there hadn't been any other attacks, so there's that. The others seemed to have upped their training too. I had seen Seekvaira go into the forest to train her magic more and more. Dovray too, seems to go out earlier, either to train his magic or to put up more defenses, maybe both.

A brief conversation with both confirmed this. I also found out that aside from her family trait she used a bit of wind magic, but not much. Like many of the clan devils, she seemed focused in her family trait. While Dovray is trying to find just how they are bypassing his arrays.

With that said, looked like Seekvaira managed to get in the rotation of the familiar master on the first try. So there we were, standing on the transportation circle waiting for it to activate.

And then it lit up.

**[}-o-{]**

'_I think this guy is a few cards short of a full deck.'_

At the moment we were following the familiar master around the forest. Let's just say that I started doubting the guy. But Seekvaira assured me that it would be fine, even though I could see her eyes twitching from time to time at the master's antics.

I also got to see their familiars. Seekvaira had a snowy owl. _'How fitting.'_ Not that I would tell her that. Dovray for his part, had a pair of goblin like creatures except they were gray, their ears pointed downwards and their pointy nose was flattened against their faces, it looked like a triangle with a corner pointing at each white eye and the other pointing downwards. He said the species was called Kobaloi. Let's just say they weren't pretty to look at.

For my part, I didn't know what I was looking for really. There where several types of familiars. Battle familiars, servant familiars (like Dovray's), messenger familiars (like Seekvaira's), information gathering familiars (again, like Seekvaira's), healer familiars, even familiars that can act as transportation. But for the moment I was just looking around and admiring the creatures that populated the forest.

However I was also feeling uneasy, I saw Dovray looking around a couple of times and when asked he said that he felt like something was following us. That wasn't a comforting thought when we were in the middle of a forest filled with who knows how many different types of creatures.

After three hours of walking through the greens, we stopped to rest a little. Seekvaira didn't seem to be in a hurry so that helped me don't feel impatient. That didn't mean that it didn't bug me that it was taking so lon-

I saw a shadow move from the corner of my eyes. I turned to see what it was and blinked. It moved again, a shadow moved. That in itself wasn't much, this had happened a couple of times already. The thing is, there was just that, a shadow. No body or anything. It moved again.

"Hm, hello?" Everyone turned to where I was looking at. The shadow had vanished.

"Seth? Did you see something?" Asked Seekvaira after seen that there was nothing there.

"I think so, give me a second." And with that I walked a bit into the forest to a place where the others where hidden by the trees. "You there?"

And it appeared again, the shadow. Looking closely it had a human shape, maybe more on the female side. It was difficult to tell, aside from being just a shadow it wavered like it was made of smoke.

"Were you the one following us today?"It came closer a bit closer, I took that as a yes. "Why?" Hey, I may have an idea, but I didn't want to offend it by directly asking if it wanted to be my familiar. It lifted a wavering arm to point at me._ '__Here goes nothing.__' _"Do you want to be my familiar?"

It stood next to me. After I repeated the chant that Seekvaira taught me the shade seemed to fuse with my shadow, making it turn completely black. I shrugged, I would have to search a description in the library later. Maybe the master could tell me something.

"I got my familiar." I told them, Seekvaira let a tiny bit of surprise show in her poker face, while Dovray looked like he already knew.

"The thing that was following us?" So that's how he knew, he felt it when we were talking. I just nodded and moved my arm, telling her to show herself. After a second she appeared next to me. Now surprise was definitely in their faces. I guess even in the Underworld it's not common for shadows to move on their own.

"Oh, an eidolon, the shade-spirit familiar, they usually stay on the shadows watching, rarely showing themselves to the living. A good familiar for information gathering, they can also help relay messages if it is loyal enough to show a physical form." The first part felt somewhat awkward, I didn't know she could talk, she hadn't so far. And the second part was good to know for when the moment came.

I let a small satisfied smile slip on my face and looked at my familiar. It felt oddly good to have her around, like when I was around Iorek. Can't say I saw that coming, but I wasn't complaining. When you don't have memories further than a couple of weeks ago you tend to try and enjoy any connection with the world.

Then we went back to the house after thanking the familiar master for his time. When I introduced Nico, the shade, to Iorek I couldn't help but laugh at the look of the behemoth. He went right through her after trying to tackle her like he did me the first time. Nico hid right on my shadow again, and I could feel a wave of worry and nervousness. _'Is that her?'_

"Don't worry, it's just his way of saying hi the first time. Hey Iorek, take it easy, she is just shy, say hi like normal." He tilted his head and barked. Nico came out and waved at him. The worry had disappeared some, the nervousness was still there.

That seemed to give the baby behemoth his cheerfulness back because he was already bouncing around and barking happily. I seriously can't take it, this over-sized puppy is just too cute, and if the warm wave I felt was anything to go by, Nico agreed.

After that introduction I went to ask Dovray if one of his familiars could teach Nico what she needed to know. And with her occupied I went to the library again.

After a bit of searching I found information on eidolons. Looked like she couldn't talk because she was too young. It shouldn't take long for her to start with that, and it would take even more time for her to be able to take physical form. That was troublesome, how would she distribute the fliers if she couldn't even touch them?

That's what I talked with Seekvaira and Dovray over dinner. In the end it was decided that she would take over the patrolling duties of one of Dovray's familiars once she learned what she needed to. In exchange that kobaloi would distribute fliers for me. Good. For a second I thought I would have to do that myself in the end, thank Maou.

**[}-o-{]**

Now, onto the contracts. There wasn't really anything special about them, which was good. With me still not knowing magic due to my Sacred Gear searching I was just a mix of Rook and Knight, which meant I was a physical type for now. With that in mind, Seekvaira sent me to the physical type requests.

That meant I ended up doing things like helping a granny move furniture in her house, her tea was really good. Looking after the child of a single mother while she went to work, I did that one a couple of times a week and took all morning, much to Iorek's dismay. I also helped a guy clean up his apartment when his girlfriend was going to visit, that was a funny one, if a bit disgusting at times. There's the time I helped a builder that lacked an employee due to an emergency too.

All in all it was a busy week. And like that, my first month as Seekvaira Agares's Queen ended.

**Author Note: I'm new to this writing thing, so any mistakes you think I made feel free to point them out. Also I'm not even near the point of knowing this story to the smallest detail, so if you think I don't follow cannon point it and I'll change it if it's not an intentional thing.**

**Author Note 2: I will have a busy weekend and week so I'll probably have another chapter come out by Friday, Thursday if I'm lucky.**


	3. Stricken

Disclaimer: I don't own Highschool DxD, neither do I own any of the multiple resources that I will use for the story in the form of (but not limited to) references.

**Arrival Arc – Stricken**

Weeks passed that way. My physical training was coming along nicely. I think Iorek was enjoying the speed I had, I hoped it wouldn't take too much for it to count as training for him too. And the strength was what made me proud, I could hold the rock above my head for about ten seconds before letting it fall. Maybe soon I could start doing sit ups, and the next step was walking with it to the house. That was the plan.

Seekvaira pointed out that there were several books on the use of weapons in the library for me to choose. She also said that she could help me get a good one of my choosing once I had picked one. However after skimming over those books I ended up bare handed. Some were pretty cool, I'll admit. But none of them seemed to really convince me. Although there were some that were close, like a flail or a scythe. In the end I decided to keep looking for different weapons and train my body in the meantime.

In the study department I just want to say that there are a lot of Sacred Gears. But in the meantime I got to learn some magic finally. Life magic to be exact or, as I called it, Basic magic, which was the magic that you could use in your everyday life, light a small light, cleaning, drying, even moving small things. And what's more important, I tested my affinity.

Affinities are mostly battle oriented, unless you have one towards something like healing, which was not the case. My affinity was Ice, which made me laugh a bit when I remembered all the times I joked about Seekvaira and her Freezing Stare spell. At the moment I could shot arrows of ice without problem, or spears if I feel like wasting more energy to get more power. Though that was in stress free situations so I'm not confident in using them in a fight. I have yet to test my shields to see if they are capable of doing their job.

The good news is that I have a lot of energy, which may be a reason for my high cost in Evil Pieces. However I refuse to be a power idiot, so I work mostly on my focus rather than power. That's how I spend my afternoons, study and magic.

Now as for meditation. There's been a little more progress, still no Sacred Gear in sight though. What I did improve was how I work on the meditative state. Before I was barely conscious during it, but now I can feel a bit more, I got to feel my magic energy. Which came as a surprise until a researched a bit.

Looked like meditation is also a nice method to improve your magic reserves and your control over it, so now I'm killing two birds with one stone. As for how the energy feels while meditating, it's like standing in the middle of a pool full of cold water with little waves sometimes. At least that's how it feels for me. From what I gathered it depends on the affinity, the reserves and the control the person has.

So in the evenings I spend my time swimming inside my magic reserves. Get used to the feeling and trying to control the energy in the 'pool'. From time to time I manage to feel it colder or stop the waves for a second. I know, doesn't sound impressive, but that's what training is for, to get to the impressive stuff, I hope.

For her part I noticed that Nico is taking a more definite shape and her ability to communicate feelings is easier to understand, at least for me. The others still have trouble to get the emotion waves but I guess that's because I'm her master and they are not.

As for the others, when I started with my magic training I talked with them regarding exactly that. As a result I got a more in depth view of they training and what they can do.

Seekvaira can slow down time on an area or a target. The second being easier than the first, for obvious reasons. She said that if she or someone else reached the point of completely stopping time they would be considered on Maou level instantly. Which makes sense because the power cannot be fought against. Obviously that doesn't mean you can't do anything against it, you just need to be fast enough for the slow to not affect you as much.

On her level she can slow someone at what would be half their speed without too much trouble. In an area depending on the size that can exhaust her. A stronger slow requires her to prepare in advance and store energy just for that.

I also asked her if it was possible to create a field for use to train in half the time. Her answer was that that was even more difficult than stopping time, because she would have to slow down the world around the field rather than the other way around. That answer killed my dream of a room specially for training where a year was a day on the outside. A bummer really.

Her Wind magic on the other hand was… ok. She could clear the air mist, smoke or dust easily enough, and also produce wind blades without trouble. Anything more than that and it was, and I quote 'a waste of energy'. Which probably means that it required more energy and effort than what she deemed worth, she preferred to save both of those for her clan trait.

Dovray for his part taught me some simple Ice trap arrays, nothing fancy. His traps are really complex, that made me find respect the guy even more. The really good ones were what could be called family secrets which he couldn't teach me, and I was ok with that. It was part of the legacy of his clan, who was I to try and get him to teach me those.

What he could tell me was that his clan 'trait' to call it something is, actually, their lack of affinity. Now that sounds terrible, doesn't it? Not so much, while they don't have an easier time with any type of magic they also don't suck at any of them. That is the drawback of having an affinity, to use any spell outside of yours you need to some serious training.

And when I say any spell, I mean it. It took me a week to get as much as a spark with Fire magic.

He also explained to me what he could do. And let me tell you, he can do a lot of things with his traps. The only drawback is that he needs to prepare them in advance, hence the name 'trap'. Besides that, thanks to his lack of affinity, he could do beginner level spells of most types of magics.

I had played chess with Seekvaira a couple of times, and I'll tell you something. I really feared what plans a mind like hers could come up with someone like Dovray by her side. I don't want to be the unlucky soul that falls in a scheme made by those two, it could not end well.

I can't really talk much about Iorek, it's difficult to measure him when non of us can match him physically. The most physically oriented besides him is me, and as I said, I'm just starting to match him in speed alone, I'm not even close to being a challenge for him. So his abilities analysis staid in blank for the moment.

Two had passed, but that peace ended.

**[}-o-{]**

"Again." The venom dripping from Seekvaira's tone would have made me cringe. If not for what I was seeing. Yes, another attack happened, this time I came with them. They said I would have to fight sooner or later, and now that my strength and speed were decent and I was capable of using some magic I was 'battle ready'.

Guess what, I wasn't ready.

I wasn't even close to being ready to see a body. I was doing everything I could to avoid throwing up. I thought it could happen, I tried to prepare myself for it, but no matter what, I was not ready to see the girl that was in front of me. There, lying on the floor on a pool of her own blood, a hole the size of my fist on her chest, another in each thigh.

My blood run cold, and I was pretty sure I looked even more pale than usual. I didn't even know what Seekvaira and Dovray were doing, or even if they were talking.

My mind had stopped working, the only thing in it was what I had in front of me. I felt someone touch my shoulder. I didn't move but someone did it for me. Dovray turned me around. There he was holding my shoulder while squeezing it trying to comfort me or get my mind off the body, or both. Seekvaira looked impassive again. I guess her anger went down some after seeing my state.

After that, Seekvaira took me back and Dovray stayed behind, I guess he took care of the body. Once at the house I went to my room without even looking at Seekvaira. After closing the door I sat right there on the floor with my back against the wood.

Don't know how much time I was like that. But I knew one thing, there was just no way I was going to sleep. When I went out the hall was silent, everyone was sleeping.

The library became my haven that night. And it struck me with something that apparently had eluded me. This world was dangerous. Every book told me that. From angels, to fallens, to mythological creatures, to the church, to gods, to magicians, even other devils. Just about everything in this world was a danger to someone like me.

Then and there I realized two things, the first one: _I_ could have been _her_.

I could be the one that Dovray had to dispose of. I just had some more luck than her, and probably every other victim. But I could have just as easily had been dead too.

And the second was: I owed Seekvaira.

The only reason I wasn't dead was probably because _she_ interrupted whatever they were doing to their victims. The only reason I wasn't dead was because _she_ had decided to reincarnate me. The only reason I wasn't dead was because _she_ gave up her most important piece to give me back my life, even if I don't remembered it. All this risking her freedom on me not being useless.

And with those realizations came resolutions.

I would stop them. I wouldn't let them keep killing people left and right. But most importantly, they had messed up with my life. They had probably stolen everything in my life by messing me up. They would pay for that.

And I would repay Seekvaira. She gave me a life. Even if I was a servant to her. In a month and a half I was in that house she hadn't ordered me around once. She had given me a home. She had pointed what I needed to learn to live in this world. She had helped me learn. True, she needed me, she had told me as much, she had told me what she expected of me. However she had left me to do as I saw fit.

So I would free her. I would train my ass off. I would blow away the Gremory, the Sitri, the Glasya-Labolas, the Astaroth and the_ freaking_ Bael heirsat the games after the Young Devil Gathering, and I would free her for being married off. A life for a life, as they say.

By the time I noticed, the sun had already came up. I went to the dinning room to see if I could get breakfast. Turns out I was on time. They were both already on it, probably didn't expect me to have appetite after last night. Can't fault them on that. I sat down on my seat. After getting past his surprise Dovray went looking for a plate for me.

"Dovray," I called when he came back, even Seekvaira looked concerned, which should tell you something about how I may have looked like after not sleeping all night. "Could you spar with me in the afternoon?"

Apparently neither expected to hear me ask that. He nodded nonetheless, and told me he would go early to check on his arrays and after that we could have our sparring session. I thanked him in advance and went out.

"Iorek." He perked up and came to me side. He seemed to notice my mood, he wasn't bouncing around, that was enough sign. "Let's go."

**[}-o-{]**

I spend two weeks training myself to the ground.

Iorek started to be slightly winded by the time our running was over. I was already walking while holding the stone above me. My magic came along nicely. However my meditation was shot. I seemed to be unable to enter the meditative state anymore. Which was no surprise, blood seemed to fill my vision every time I closed my eyes.

My spars with Dovray had come a long way. The first time I was pathetic, the only reason I didn't fall in the first seconds was because of the defense enhancement. Now I could match him, but that didn't mean anything. He wasn't a fighter type, he was most dangerous when he used his traps, which he couldn't during a fight.

So I decided to train until I could spar with Iorek. I still fought Dovray every other day just to improve my battle senses, he agreed that it would be useful for himself in case his traps didn't work and emergencies.

I still had a long way to-

"You need to stop, Seth." Was what Seekvaira told me before dinner one night. She looked concerned.

"I don't think I get what you mean." I told her. "Stop what? Training? I think I _need_ exactly what I'm doing."

"You are burning yourself out, and you need to stop that." She told me with a cold glare that any other time would have me fearing frostbite. "I get that what you saw that night affected you, I really do, the first time seeing something like that is not easy for anyone. But destroying yourself isn't an answer."

"I think I'll pass dinn-"

"You'll stay where you are and that's an order." I froze midway through a lame excuse to pass dinner and go read or train or whatever but have that conversation with Seekvaira. She continued. "If not for yourself you'll stop for me, you know my situation. I can't lose a piece, much less my Queen right now."

For a moment I thought I heard desperation in her voice. _'Just my imagination.'_

"Half the reason I'm doing this is because of that." I told her, and I was treated to the sight of her eyes opening as much as they could, her jaw slightly falling. "You saved me, I owe you. And I decided something, I _will_ get you free form an arranged marriage."

She looked stunned, and didn't come out of it for a couple of seconds. She didn't say anything after she did, she just stared at me seemingly trying to solve the puzzle that my mind became for her.

"Then listen to me." She said after what felt like hours. "You _will_ rest, you _will_ take your time with things, you _will_ ease up on your training. You can't help me if you break yourself, neither will you be able to go against the people behind the attacks if you do."

She was right. I knew she was. But that was not the point. I had lied to her. Fighting for her freedom was just a quarter of my reasons for training, same for fighting those people. Half my reason to train was that I was afraid. I was afraid I would die again.

I clenched my fists until my knuckles were white. I was half expecting blood to come out of my palms. Dying is scary. I had come out of a near dead situation. True, I didn't remember the attack. But I remember the darkness and numbness that came with being so close to death. If dying was anything like that…

No, I didn't want to die.

"And you won't." Seekvaira's voice broke me out of my thoughts. _'Did I say that out loud?'_ "You are part of my peerage now. I may not be a Gremory, but that doesn't mean I don't care about you. I won't let you die, any of you."

I could tell it was true. It could just be because she needed a peerage for the gathering and getting her freedom. It could be because she used her Queen on me and couldn't just lose me because reasons. But the case was, she meant what she said.

I locked eyes with her. Green and Pink. And then came Dovray with the dinner. I noticed that he probably delayed the food on purpose. He send a worried face my way. I felt Nico sending me a wave of a comforting feeling. She had being doing that every time she wasn't out on patrol. I had ignored her because she couldn't help with my training. Really, I had ignored all of them.

I turned my eyes to the plate in front of me. Relaxed my hands, and stretched my fingers. I kept my gaze down without saying anything and started eating. After I was done I left still with my mouth shut and went to bed. For the first time in my new life I cried.

**[}-o-{]**

My mind was still a mess, but I was getting better if my capacity to meditate was anything to go by. Little by little I got back to where I had been before that night with my sessions.

That didn't mean I stopped training. But I slowed my pace a little, much to everyone's relief. This month was becoming one of realizations, because then I noticed something else, something that I had ignored ever since I woke up that first day.

I was part of a group, I was with people. Ever since then I had somehow kept myself away from everyone of them, even Iorek and Nico to some extent. But I was here, and they were too. I was part of this peerage as where they. I was their Queen. Seekvaira was _my _King. Dovray was _my _Bishop. Iorek was _my_ Rook. Nico was_ my_ familiar. And those things meant something. We were all tied together. That thought became my pillar.

Playing chess with Seekvaira after lunch became a habit. I started helping Dovray with some things around the house. After morning training I sat down and somewhat talked with Iorek and Nico. I recovered. I was even better than before the incident.

Turns out Seekvaira's parents weren't arseholes. They were just being pressured politically to agree with a marriage contract. Having half the nobility of your race wiped out doesn't help. The point of showing off in the Young Devil Gathering to show her parents _and_ the Underworld that she was more than just an heiress. That would help her parents get people of their backs.

Turns out Dovray's family had a history of serving the Agares clan. A clan of strategists and a clan of trap makers. That combo had existed for a long time, and probably would continue to exist for just as long. The King and Bishop had worked together most their lives, so when she got her pieces it shocked no one that he was her first servant.

Turns out Nico had come a long way with her communication skills. I could share feelings with her now, doing so with warm feelings really improved my mood every time, and she seemed to enjoy it.

Turns out Iorek was a sucker for belly rubbing.

And with that added my routine, no,_ my life _continued. And I came to enjoy it. I had a life and people around me. I was happy.

**[}-o-{]**

Two weeks after that talk with Seekvaira I had a breakthrough.

During a meditation session I noticed something somewhere behind my magic pool. Something I would swear was not present any other time. But it was there, when I got close I got a feeling. It felt like Nico when she fused with my shadow or tried to touch me, but not quite.

I don't know how long, but I kept trying to get nearer that, closer, trying to grab a hold of it but it kept slipping through my figurative fingers. However, I didn't give up, I insisted. Until I got it. And once I did it was like opening a door.

Now I felt two things while meditating. The 'pool' of magic and what was like an empty 'room'. I wandered between the two for a while. And when I came out of the meditative state what received me where chains.

I had a chain wrapped around my forearms connecting behind my back. Hanging from the end of the chain in my left arm was a mix between a lantern and a flail's head. On the other end, in my right, was a one handed scythe. Everything was made of a silvery metal that seemed to shine with a green color under the light.

My Sacred Gear awakened.

It took me a while to make it disappear, mostly because I really liked the feeling of it around my arms, and looking at it. It just felt right. But in the end I did and I couldn't stop myself from going to the library to search for something that told me what it was and what it did.

It was after midnight that I found it. Soul Warden. Low-tier Sacred Gear. Every being killed by it would have it's soul stored inside the gear. Apparently the user could communicate with the souls stored. Users used that to hopefully get their previous enemies to train them or help them and the like.

To say that I was disappointed would be an understatement.

But it was something. _'And something is better than nothing every time.'_ The day after I saw the same disappointment in Dovray's face, and Seekvaira seemed to reach the same conclusion as me. During our chess match Seekvaira suggested that along with the physical training involving the Sacred Gear that I already planned to do I should also practice the soul storage side.

So, after a week and having started to get used to fighting with the chains I went on a hunt with Iorek. He was just there to help me find a prey and just in case something out of plans happened. That afternoon I took my first lives. A pack of wolves.

Why wolves and not something more easy? Exactly because of that, I wanted a fight. I hadn't used the chains against Dovray yet. So I decided to test it against something that would fight back.

It was a messy fight, definitely would need a lot of work to fight decently with them. But in the end I won. Not that there was any doubt. A pack of wolves might be deadly for humans, but to a somewhat trained devil that also had Queen enhancement, it was like fighting puppies. I really avoided that comparison though.

Taking their lives seemed to remind me of that night. For moments the wolf bodies seemed to shimmer out and the girl appeared in their places. Then I felt something push my arm. When I looked to the side I saw Iorek pressing softly with his horn against my arm again. He seemed to have noticed my state of mind and tried to comfort me. I started petting him and those thoughts and images vanished slowly. A cold that I hadn't noticed left my limbs little by little.

When I came back I saw Seekvaira waiting for us. _'So she expected something to happen. Maybe she wanted to see how I would react.' _Stray hunts were a thing after all, and that was part of being a devil. She probably also wanted to know if I would be capable. They had gone to a hunt without me a week ago.

I smiled weakly at her, and she returned a reassuring one.

"Want to lose another match?" Was what she said. Joking like that was so out of character for her that I had to be stupid not to notice the intention to lighten the mood.

"One of these days..." I said mock angrily. While mentally I thanked her wholeheartedly. I really wanted to win a match against her at least once in my life. It would not be that day though, I lost miserably.

**Author Note: I'm new to this writing thing, so any mistakes you think I made feel free to point them out. Also I'm not even near the point of knowing this story to the smallest detail, so if you think I don't follow cannon point it and I'll change it if it's not an intentional thing.**


	4. It Has Begun

**faithful despair: **I'll try to answer everything you said in order. First, that's exactly why I'm writing this fanfic, I only found one, _one_, that was Seekvaira-centered, was decent and was updated not too long ago. If you are interested look it up: Rude Awakening: Redux by RedXEagl3.

Second, as for sticking to canon, I will and won't at the same time. The thing is, I like things to make sense, and let's be honest, a lot of things in canon don't. With that in mind I'll try to make them work, at least a bit, better. I also plan to focus more on things that aren't explained well, or aren't explained at all, that gives me room to make things up.

And finally I plan to continue writing, you don't have to worry about that. Although reviews _do_ help a lot in the motivation department.

**P****S****: **Yeah, the Sacred Gear is exactly like that, I have several Sacred Gear ideas taken from videogames (though they may or may not work differently to adjust them to the world of DxD). I'll also use character names to reference other things (some more obvious than others), though probably not all of them. And even the titles of the chapters are song titles.

**Thanks, Rodvek97, faithful despair and you other guy that seems to be something like a guest, for the reviews.**

**I want to apologize, I discovered some weird shit yesterday. If you post a new chapter on the same day or within 24 hours the site doesn't seem to count the upload as an update. And I don't know if it is related but every time I try to correct something it just ignores whatever I tried to do. So that's that, sorry if you read this yesterday and now got another notification.**

**The good thing is that I got to check the chapter up again for mistakes and the like. So there's that.**

**Wow, that took more than I thought, well, on with the chapter.**

Disclaimer: I don't own Highschool DxD, neither do I own any of the multiple resources that I will use for the story in the form of (but not limited to) references.

**Arrival Arc – It Has Begun**

Crack.

'_Shit.'_

I got out from behind my ice shield before it exploded sending shards everywhere. Yeah, I found that drawback about ice shields on my second sparing session. Unless I could make them strong enough or had no options it was not a good idea.

Three magic circles appeared above my head in a triangle of sorts, the Agares emblem in the middle of them. Ice arrows shot out of them providing me with cover fire. Now the question you may be asking yourself: 'Why use magic circles and things like that when devil magic works with concentration and comprehension?'. The answer is simple. It was to simplify the comprehension work.

It worked like normal human magic, in a way. While human magic worked through arithmancy (Which is something like magical math.) devils, as beings naturally connected with magic, didn't need to go to that extent. That didn't mean we couldn't take advantage of arithmancy. My circles weren't on that level though, they were just something to make my job easier if even just a little bit.

I felt my feet splash on water and I instantly knew what was coming. I jumped and swung my chains up to a tree branch to pull myself up. A second later I heard the water sparkling with electricity, oh how I hated that combo. After making it draw circles for a second I launched the lantern on my left arm, which happened to be my free one. My aim with that was still shit, but at least it worked as distraction. And I needed that because I couldn't get the chain to let go of the branch without doing it by hand.

I launched an Ice lance at my opponent who rolled out of the way. I knew he would do that, that's why I had two other lances go to his left and right, the one on the right was going straight at him. Flames came out of his hand and enveloped my lance.

The flail end of the chain drew a curve directed roughly in his direction. He jumped over it and shards of rock shot at me from the floor. I blocked them with the scythe in my hand as I charged at him. One cut my right arm, another my right thigh and one pierced my left one. I hissed in pain as I got it out of my leg, running with something stuck in your flesh is not nice, much less fighting.

I swung the flail again and this time, being nearer, it wrapped around his leg. I pulled and he enveloped it on earth in order to resist it. Unfortunately for him, he didn't have a circle for that, or an earth affinity for that matter. So that sucked his last magic reserves. Panting and with sweat covering his brow he looked up to see me with my scythe at his throat.

"I give?" He said nervously.

"You better." I smirked at him. Then I proceeded to kick the hardened earth that covered his shin, freeing him. "I didn't expect you to do that, true. But it wasn't a good idea either, Dovray."

"I know, I may have panicked at little. But, can you blame me? I know how much control you have of those chains better than anyone." He told me with a smirk of his own. I groaned loudly.

It was nearing the end of my third month as the Agares heiress's Queen and my training was going really well. My speed was coming along nicely. Soon enough I hoped I would be the one running circles around Iorek, behemoths were just not meant to be fast. My walk with the rock was becoming more steady, I was having trouble thinking about what to do when that stopped counting as exercise, probably try running, but aside from that nothing else came to mind.

In the magic department, as explained above, I had started to draw my own circles. They were really really basic, at best, but they worked and that was good for me. I would tinker with them until they were good over time. Moreover, my reserves and control were improving too, because of my meditation at nights.

And talking about meditation, you may wonder how my Sacred Gear training was going. Well… let's just say not _everything _was going well. The soul 'cell', as it may, of my meditative state was a mess most of the time. Not that I blamed them, they were inherently wild and I had killed them, but still. However, looking on the bright side, there was one soul that I could kind of calm down, sometimes, for a second. But hey, it's something!

As for using the chains physically… it was a work in progress. I could work with them, kind of. Actually I wasn't reliable with them at all. I was better of using my fists in a real battle. I liked the chained weapons, I really did, but liking to use it and using it well were different things. So I started using them in the spars to add that to my training. I would switch in which side the flail was in order to practice better, I didn't want to throw the scythe at Dovray, just to practice aim.

The only reasons I wasn't getting my ass kicked were that, one, Dovray was not a physical type, even a real battle type at all. Secondly, I used a lot of magic to cover my mistakes. And third, my defense enhancement helped me tank damage when everything failed.

Hence why I was working on healing magic too. That was probably my worst front. Having an affinity that most certainly had nothing to do with healing didn't help. I had to put extra effort on my healing magic circles. And I still wasted a shit ton of energy to heal the smallest abrasion or burn. And that is counting that it's supposedly easier to use healing magic on yourself.

I sighed and started walking to the house. Once Dovray recovered some energy I would have to ask him to patch me up. By the time I noticed them Iorek was already by our side and Nico was in my shadow. I started petting the first between the eyes while I send the latter a grateful feeling that she answered with warmth and _'good'_. Yeah, she would send one word messages from time to time but it still came as a little surprise most of the time.

"I'll come out as soon as I recover some energy." Dovray said and went inside once I waved and told him to take his time. With a Rook's body I could ignore most wounds as long as I wasn't moving around. So like that I sat down against the outside wall with a hand over Iorek's head, he was lying besides me.

I had to change my training routine some. I was working on a lot of things, and doing all that everyday was impossible, so I divided it. Mornings where still physical training everyday, same as evenings with meditation, but afternoons is what changed.

Mondays and Fridays was sparing and magic training/study. As I said, drawing my circles and improving my comprehension. I was also studying every type of magic I came across in the library. Well, studying may be the wrong word to use, more like analyzing. I needed to know how other magics worked to try and look for a way to counter them should I find myself against a user of them that needed a bit more strategy to fight against.

Tuesdays and Thursdays was Sacred Gear training, be it externally or internally. I kind of switched between them as I got frustrated. But can anybody blame me? Using chains to fight is really complicated, once you send them flying they twist, wrap, they even get tangled up. When you swing it, it's difficult to stop the end of it from drawing circles around you and wrapping you up like a Christmas present. And when it wrapped around something it was really difficult to undo it, even more when that something was you, believe it. It was a pain to learn how to use them, plain and simple.

The inner gear training was even worse. Trying to use reason with an animal is already complicated. Doing it with a wild, carnivorous one is difficult. Doing so with one that I _killed_ was almost impossible. Nevermind that actually talking while in the meditative state wasn't possible for me, at least for now. I gained a new understanding the first day.

Me trying to communicate with them was like Nico trying to communicate with us. Maybe not the same thing, but I think it was a good comparison. Maybe that's why she chose me, my Sacred Gear made us compatible. Either way, I was probably on the same level of communication abilities as Nico was with me, maybe a little behind.

Wednesdays was just general studies, and acted as a break of sorts in the middle of the weak. Sometimes I would study more about Ice and Healing magic but most of the time it was just me informing myself on random things in the library.

And finally, weekends were full of contract making. All my routine had Seekvaira Agares's seal of approval. She seemed pleased with how I decided to organize my time or maybe it was just that I told her during a chess match in which she was destroying me. I think it was the first option, yeah, definitely.

Even better was that there hadn't been another attack, but I tried not to think about that to avoid jinxing it. That, however, didn't mean that we relaxed our guards. Dovray and Seekvaira were working together to try to improve the defenses. Or it may be better to say that they added another layer of defenses. Aside from the detection and traps they made every city and town in our territory a giant trap.

Some time ago we reached the conclusion that the only way they could be going through the defenses was by detecting them. And then the scheming started. They placed the traps throughout the populated areas in a way that made whoever tried to avoid them go right into one of Dovray's most amazing works. Traps especially designed to be as undetectable as possible.

Obviously they required a lot out of Dovray to place and maintain. That's why there were just a couple in each town and a max of five if the place was big.

Aside from that they are working on their own training as well. Me being able to beat him seemed to hurt Dovray's pride a bit because he decided to step up his training. Moreover, telling him that I had the Queen piece to help me and that he was not a direct fighter didn't seem to calm him down, actually it seemed to motivate him more.

In the end I left him do as he pleased, training couldn't hurt him. Also, Seekvaira assured me that she would keep an eye on him to ensure that he didn't end up doing something like what I did before.

For her part our King said she was working on meditation after hearing about how it was helping me. Heirs of the Underworld are really arrogant, they seemed to think that their clan trait was everything, and in a way it was. Not relaying in their traits would be like me not using my Ice affinity. It was just stupid.

However some took that to the next level and did nothing to train it aside from using it, sometimes not even that. And that was only a small portion of the work. But Seekvaira couldn't afford to be confident. So she started meditating to increase her reserves and control over her demonic energy. From what she told me she was also struggling to get the hang of the meditative state like I did at the start.

Though to be honest I expected her to have an easier time, just because as a naturally born devil she was always in contact with her magic and her trait. That should help her get to feel her energy pool sooner.

Besides that she also started to look for other methods that could possibly help her with her magic. I was kind of worried that she was building up too focused on her magic. Her answer was that she was not really a fighting type, which was true, no matter how awesome her trait is, it still doesn't really do any damage. So she has to rely on someone else to do the battle while she uses it to slow them down until they are easy prey.

Some may argue that she could slow them down and attack with her wind magic. It's not that easy. Trying to use two different types of magic at the same time is really difficult, like trying to see in two different directions at the same time. Even using the same type of magic for two very different spells at the same time was complicated. So that strategy was out from the beginning. That's not to say it wasn't possible, just that it would take a lot of time and practice.

Trying to build up a defense would be pointless, if her trait couldn't stop someone any other thing she tried would have the same result or worse. Also, she argued that, as of now, Iorek and me would be the swords of the group, while she and Dovray would be the shields, backing us up.

If you ask me she was just making up excuses to not work out. And if the barely noticeable blush was anything to go by, I was right. Seemed like even she still had that bit of nobility in her as to not dirty her hands. She did tell me that she would exercise if the situation didn't improve by the time we had a year until the Gathering. That was good enough for me.

We also had a talk about how we would search for more peerage members. She told me that she was always keeping in contact with the Extra Demons faction to see if she could get someone from there to join. However aside from that she didn't have a definite answer.

That was worrying. I asked if there was any chance we could search for people from other mythologies and she said that every mythology usually kept to themselves. That made contact really difficult, not to mention recruiting.

And when Sacred Gears came up on the conversation that really killed the mood. It went without saying that if we couldn't take care of whoever was hunting down gear users in her territory then we wouldn't be able to get anyone to join.

The conclusion was that things didn't look good in the recruiting department. But with more than a year and a half we thought that we could be able to recruit a couple of members more and with what we had plus that it should be enough to do well. It's not like the others would get Longinus tier Sacred Gear users, those didn't grow on trees after all.

**[}-o-{]**

Maybe I jinxed it in the end.

I was being surrounded by the light of the teleportation circles. I had steeled my nerves. I needed to go, I could no cower forever, so the sooner I got my act together the better. When we appeared we were treated to three sights, one, a guy had been trapped in the hidden array Dovray had prepared and was lying on the ground, two, there was another body, three, there were three guys running away from the scene.

I looked away from the corpse as soon as I saw it. My eyes locked on the figures that were running and I chased after them. We had talked about this, right now I was the fastest in the group besides Iorek, and he couldn't come with us to the middle of a town. So I would chase after whoever we came across if they tried to escape.

Hate that I had forgotten was there came to me at full force and I ran. Maybe it was my focus, my speed or both but everything besides them seemed to blur out of existence. It wasn't difficult to catch up, this guys were slow, Dovray could've probably done it too. They obviously were caught off guard by the trap, and having to do whatever they were doing to the victims had left them with no time to try and use a teleportation spell as seemed to be the case the other times.

Once I was relatively close I summoned the chains and threw one end with the intend to wrap it in a light post. Fortunately it worked well and pulling as hard as I could I propelled myself in the air and made my chains disappear, as of that moment it was easier than trying to unwrap it.

I landed right besides the one that was in the front and I didn't wait before sending ice arrows at his legs. I turned and as expected one of them was launching magic at me while the other was running. I built an ice shield and run without seen if it would last or not. I sent an ice lance at the guy that had attacked and run after the other. A howl of pain told me the attack hit its target. Good, if I failed I would have had to turn around and try again, giving the other more time.

Said other had gone inside an alley hoping the other would entertain me enough for him to escape. I don't need to tell you that it didn't work out like that. I summoned my chains again and send the flail end at him warping it around his legs. I pulled the chain, while grabbing the scythe and unfolding my devil wings. _'__True, __I have yet to practice flying...'_ For now, it was just for intimidation purposes.

"Now, you'll tell me what the fuck have you guys been doing." I said looking straight at him. He looked to be panicking and on the verge of hyperventilating. I was going to ask again when his eyes seemed to focus. He opened his mouth to speak.

And his head fell back. I knelt down and checked him. He was dead.

I was confused, yes, but it hadn't ended yet. I got up and went to the other two I had chased. The one that took my lance was whimpering holding the lance that pierced through his right leg.

The other was unresponsive, checking he was dead two. _'What the hell is happening? __Y__ou don't die that fast because of injuries like those.'_ When I looked at the one that was still alive, he turned to look at me.

"No, go away, go away." I didn't listen I stalked towards him. "No no no nononono..." He tried to crawl away.

"Just tell what you were doing and we can work things out." I told him, probably a lie, but I just wanted answers. Answers I didn't get. He died just like the others.

I clenched my fists. All that preparation, the chasing, the fighting, all that for nothing. I cursed under my breath and started going to were Seekvaira and Dovray were. When I got there they seemed to be talking with a girl._ 'She wasn't here when we arrived.'_

"What did I miss?" I asked and everyone turned to look at me. The girl was a petite, fair-skinned girl with a slender build. A pair of lazy-looking onyx eyes, and rather small eyebrows. Her hair was short, only around chin length, and black.

Her attire consisted of a black leather jacket, long salmon-colored shirt with several rips at the collar and hem and black pants that tucked in a pair of tall black boots.

"What happened to those?" Asked back Seekvaira pointing in the direction I had chased the magicians. I frowned before answering.

"Dead, two of them died spontaneously when I tried to question them, the other didn't even last that long." I pinched the bridge of my nose. "I was careful, they shouldn't have died because of what I did, something happened to them. The only thing I got is that one of them used magic, human magic if I had to guess."

"Same happened with the one in the trap," She said with a frown of her own. "Dovray, you know what to do." He spread his wings and went to take a look at the bodies before disposing of them. The bodies of the new victim and the previously trapped one had vanished already I noticed.

"Care to introduce our guest?" I said pointing at the girl, she still had that lazy look in her eyes, as if she was just bored of life.

"Trina, just Trina." Answered the girl. "I was talking with your boss here. I've noticed this guys before. They were trailing me once. I was going to help you keep an eye out here." She said without changing her expression, it was a little unnerving really. "But if they are dea-"

"We would appreciate it, if I'm being honest I doubt those were all of them, specially after the way Seth described they died." Seekvaira said cutting the girl mid sentence, that seemed to annoy her a little. I wondered why Seekvaira did that, it was not like her, then I got that she wanted to keep contact with Trina. If she had noticed this people, that obviously belonged to the supernatural, then she was part of it somehow. "Just contact us through this," She continued passing Trina a flier. "Think about calling me and it should alert us."

The girl looked at the flier then at us, shrugged and went away. Seriously, I hope that if she joins us somehow her attitude changes at least a little. It set me on edge just looking at those bored eyes.

"Let's go back." Our King told me, I just nodded. I had seen too much death tonight, _'__I need a break, right now'_.

**[}-o-{]**

After that I started what had become my personal therapy session. First spending time with Iorek and Nico, those two really helped take the numbness away from my limbs. Once I was relatively ok, I went and cooked a snack with Dovray's help. Then I played a match of chess with Seekvaira while eating and Dovray watched.

No one complained that it was past midnight while all this happened. I thanked them from the bottom of my heart for that. Iorek and Nico just shrugged it off, Dovray waved it off and Seekvaira accepted it politely.

Sleep didn't come easy, but it did in the end. The next day I continued trying to relax. And I discussed Trina with Seekvaira. We didn't know anything about her, for all we knew she could be someone left there to lure us out to a trap. We would keep our guards up. If she summoned us we would have a flier to summon Iorek as safety measure.

Both of us secretly hoped she would be what we thought, a Sacred Gear user, one that if we were lucky could end up joining us. But that was just us being really positive.

Dovray looked over the magician corpses. Apparently there were signs of magic in their bodies. Something he identified as a death on trigger spell. That had killed them. We concluded that it was probably there to keep them from betraying whoever they were working for. So we had taken two steps forward and one step back.

At the very least we knew we were dealing with magicians, and a group at that. With that Seekvaira would contact her parents and inform of the situation. If we were lucky they would be able to get some info on this group. We were not holding our breaths on that though. Secondly we had another pair of eyes on that town. A possible future ally too. So there was that. And we had confirmed that our trap scheme worked. So we didn't feel as bad as the other times. Seekvaira didn't look like she could kill freeze you faster than I could with a stare, so that was good.

**[}-o-{]**

A week passed after that, three months since I woke up. Seekvaira's parents answered us on the magicians that we dealt with. We had sent the bodies to help with the search of information. The four of them had left their magic associations months or years ago.

We were dealing with a group of stray magicians.

**Author Note: I'm new to this writing thing, so any mistakes you think I made feel free to point them out. Also I'm not even near the point of knowing this story to the smallest detail, so if you think I don't follow canon point it and I'll change it if it's not an intentional thing.**


	5. Villain I

**Rikes:** Actually, I have something planned to somehow balance exactly that. I would tell more but I think that would ruin the surprise. Thanks for the review.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Highschool DxD, neither do I own any of the multiple resources that I will use for the story in the form of (but not limited to) references.

**Nilrem Arc – Villain I'm Not**

The revelation of what we were against didn't affect my training routine, _'For once, thank Maou'_. The only things I did change was a bit more focus on magic counter studies while on Wednesdays and start training to fly during the mornings.

Devils could fly easily just using their demonic energy through their wings. I got the hang of that by the first week, I had pretty good control over my magic after all that training. But I didn't stop there, it _was_ possible to fly without using energy after all. Using my wing muscles was nowhere near as easy as with magic. I was still falling on my face after seconds of leaving the floor, much to the others amusement.

Speed training was amazing, and it wasn't because I could finally outrun Iorek. Well it was because of that, but can you blame me? It felt good to be the best at something. Battle magic didn't count, we didn't have anyone that actually _used_ it as their main use for magic, Seekvaira used her trait for support and Dovray used it for his traps.

I tried a new strength training that I thought up. A pushing contest with Iorek. What? It was a good plan in my mind. In the end let's just say it didn't work and leave it at that. For now, I'd just look for a bigger rock while I run.

Magic was advancing as fast as ever. I had put a lot of effort specifically in my healing magic, after all my Ice magic was already battle ready. I got it to work with small cuts and things like that. Yes, it depleted my entire reserves to heal _one_ cut, but still, I was pretty happy with my progress. That didn't mean that I completely ignored my Ice magic, but what I did with that was little more than some improvement on my circles.

Now, Sacred Gear training. _'Sigh.'_ That was rapidly becoming the bane of my existence. It advanced so frustratingly slow that I started punching trees down out of frustration. My chain mastery improved little to be honest, the most I could say was that I didn't mess up big time as much as before. The good thing was that Seekvaira, Maou bless her cold soul, had gotten me a book about weapons that had a section explaining the use of chains in fights. It wasn't much, but at that point I would take anything. I had gotten it three days ago and I could already say that my Kings search for that book certainly wasn't useless.

As for the meditative part of my Sacred Gear training. It wasn't much better, but it didn't affect me as much. I tried, believe me, I _tried_ and tried _hard_ to think about something useful about that part of my gear. But in the end, nothing came to mind. Yes, I could probably get some guidance from enemies in the future. However, that was so far in the future that I thought it would be useless by that point.

That there was almost nothing said about previous users and what they said didn't help. It meant that they hadn't achieved anything aside from using the chains, flail and scythe for what they were. No special ability whatsoever. Apparently, none of them had ever achieved Balance Breaker.

With that said I still communicated with the wolves, all seven of them. I think I improved a lot on actually communicating. And there's one of them that I can get to calm down most of the time, I'm thinking a name for him. The others I can get them to calm down for a bit sometimes. As I said, it wasn't that much of a pain to fail. While getting them to listen to me would be nice I didn't have a real use for that so, meh.

Nico was improving her communication skills too. In no time we would actually be able to hold conversations and if I was being honest, I couldn't wait for that. No offense to Seekvaira and Dovray, but they were not really good on friendly conversations. I couldn't really fault them on that, I wasn't either, but Nico was, or would be. I could tell it would be refreshing to talk to her from time to time.

The oversized puppy was as adorable as ever, not that I would tell him that. The one time I did he charged at me with all the intention of impaling me with his horn and I learned my lesson: Don't call a behemoth adorable.

Dovray for his part told me that he was working on a way to use his arrays during active battle. Now _that_ was something that I wasn't expecting. For the life of me I couldn't think of a way to use trap arrays that needed time and preparation on a full-on battle situation. Him refusing to tell me more didn't help my curiosity. I would have to wait until he used it on a spar.

Seekvaira for her part started to gather information on the other heirs that would attend the Gathering. So far, the most information she had gathered was about the Bael heir's peerage. That was good, she said he was probably the most powerful of them all. He seemed to have a group of devils shunned by their families because of them being unable to use their family traits or being half breeds, although there still were those that had joined on their own. We had a lot to prepare with those guys as opponents.

Unfortunately, the information about the others wasn't nearly as detailed. What we had pointed the Glasya-Labolas heir as a weakling, we didn't want to depend on that though. There was something about the Astaroth heir having people from the church, but that was mostly a rumor.

The Gremory heiress seemed to have taken in a Rook Nekoshou, sister of an SS class Stray Devil. We didn't know anything about the others but if that Rook's sister was anything to go by, we'd need to watch out for more info on that group.

The Sitri heiress had two former members of exorcist clans in her peerage, we didn't know anymore than that but if that was true then it could be a problem. Especially considering that Seekvaira praised Sona Sitri's skills in chess from their childhood, that in my book meant that she was a strategy genius, as my King. That was a worrying thought.

We had also started to work as proper King and Queen, mostly during weekends and I also cleared a couple of hours before dinner to work on that too. It was mostly reading reports from Dovray's kobaloi and Nico about our territory and reports from Seekvaira's parents about the Agares territory down in the Underworld. It was boring, yes, but we needed to be up to date with this things just in case.

She didn't really have to manage anything in the territory aside from the house. And everything in it was self-sufficient. Electricity and the like were provided by magic circles fueled by a gemstone used to store demonic energy. We just had to fill it in occasionally and that was it.

The only other thing was dividing who would take which contract but considering that we were two of the three that actually _went_ on contracts… yeah, not much to do. So, if that was the case, she would just tell me to continue my training on weekdays or we would play chess to pass the time on weekends.

All in all, it had been three weeks since the attack and everything was good.

I had to jinx it. _Again_.

Trina was calling.

We had gathered in the teleportation circle when a thought crossed my mind.

"It's early afternoon." I pointed out. "They always attacked in the middle of the night." That seemed to make Seekvaira stop and think.

"So, it could be a trap, we thought about that already." But she wasn't done, I could almost see the gears turning in her head. "Or she could just want to tell us something."

"I'll go alone." I put up a hand for them to let me finish. "Give me a flier to summon you guys just in case. If something happens, I'll call for back up." Dovray didn't look convinced at all. Seekvaira seemed to reluctantly agree that it was a good plan. "I'll see you later." I said after getting their fliers while our King activated the circle.

**[}-o-{]**

"Thank god, I thought for a second that you would come here with guns blazing." She said, with the same bored look in her face as last time. Seriously, what's with women in the supernatural world and their eyes.

I suppressed a wince at the mention the man upstairs and looked around, I was in the living room of a small apartment, there was also the table and I could see part of the kitchen just turning a corner. There was a small hall with two doors, I guessed a bedroom and a bathroom.

"We almost did. Didn't we give you the flier in case another attack happened?" I said, trying hard not to be pissed while at the same time keeping my guard up.

"You did. But I can't contact you in case I want to tell you something else." I pinched the bridge of my nose.

"Ok… so, something came up?"

"Nope." _'She actually popped the 'p' the little shi-' _"But it doesn't mean that it couldn't happen. And I also wanted to know what the hell happened, it's not every day that someone gets murdered in your town. Much less with magic. And… I couldn't get that out of my head." She said, that last sentence muttered under her breath, she probably thought I didn't hear it. Yeah, Devil senses do that. She was actually showing an emotion besides boredom too; too bad it was in a bad way and I could relate.

"*Sigh* Ok." I sat down in her sofa; she didn't seem to mind that I didn't ask for permission. I took a second to organize everything in my mind. "What do you want to know?"

"Why did they kill him?"

"We aren't hundred percent sure, but we have the theory that they are hunting people with magical artifacts attached to their souls." She paled. _'Seems like she _does_ have one.'_ "As for why they kill them like that we know that they are targeting the artifacts in particular, but we don't know why. It's probably to try and take it from them though."

I paused to let that sink in and waited for her to say or do something. Finally, she spoke.

"Why not just ask for it or take it." I thought I heard a hint of desperation. Understandable really, she just heard that there's a group hunting people like her.

"Because as I said, the artifact is attached to the soul. If you lose it, you die, as simple as that. Although, taking it from someone is not an easy thing to do, that's why they do it like that." We had theorized all of this over the months. I watched her reactions with a face that would have made Seekvaira proud. She was afraid.

"Your group… can you tell me about it?" She was curious that could be good, or bad. I had to be careful.

"You could say that my boss owns a territory, your town is part of it. We keep watch over this territory in order to stop things like what's happening." I purposely avoided telling her we are devils or the like, there was just no way to say that and make it sound good.

"You are hiding something." She didn't ask, she stated it. We locked eyes. I did my best to keep my face from expressing anything. "I can tell when people lie, you didn't, but there's more to that than what you said."

My brain was working full speed. _'She said that she noticed them following her, now she says that she can tell when someone lies, and even that I avoided something. Just what the hell is her Sacred Gear…'_ Then I caught a glimpse of earrings under in her hair covered ears. _'Of freaking _course_…'_

"That's your artifact, huh?" Just like her, I didn't ask. She tensed up when I pointed at her ears. "You don't have to worry, not about me at least." She relaxed, just a bit. "There's no easy way to say this so I'll be blunt. We are Devils. That's what I was hiding." She looked at me in disbelief. "Honestly though, you saw magic and have a magic artifact and you don't believe that there are supernatural creatures in the world?" I asked with a hint of amusement. "I can show you my wings if you want."

"If you put it like that. Then why 'keep watch', aren't you the bad guys after all?"

"That's a misconception. We are not inherently bad, Devils are just beings that are closer to sin. Also, we don't want the end of humanity at all, in fact that would be bad for us. We do business with people on our territories. And before you ask, no, the soul exchange is not done." That seemed to calm her down. Her being able to tell if I lied or not worked in my favor this time.

"Then what do you do?"

"Well I haven't been a Devil for long," I started, that part was on purpose. I wanted her to know that I wasn't a devil before, she probably would ask that next. "so I do mostly errands here and there. But we do anything if it's within our power and the client can pay. Of course, that depends on if we are not against it too." After all, Seekvaira could be a Devil and be able to almost freeze you with a stare but that apparently didn't stop guys from asking her out. I haven't found out what happens to those, and being honest, I don't think I want to.

"What do you mean not for long?" Hook, line and sinker.

"I was reincarnated. I was attacked by this group a few months ago, I was lucky. I ended up being reincarnated by Seekvaira and they patched me up. And here I am." She looked curious. Though I wasn't sure about what part.

"So, you have an artifact?"

"Yes, and they are called Sacred Gears by the way." I summoned my chains, she looked impressed. Yeah, the ability was not that good, but the looks made up for it some, I would admit that much. I made them disappear after she was done ogling them. She seemed to be thinking about something hard, so I just waited.

"Is there a way for me to find out what my… Sacred Gear can do?" She was trying hard to hide her curiosity; she was failing though.

"We have some books on Sacred Gears, I could try to find one that describes yours." I shrugged, I would have to ask Seekvaira if I could. But considering we had talked about recruiting her if she had a Sacred Gear then it probably wouldn't be a problem. My answer seemed to put her on edge.

"Why would you help me?" _'Was that one reason to ask the question from the very beginning?'_ I didn't answer right away. I had to think this through, my answer could mean a lot for the peerage. _'Why couldn't it have been an attack, fighting is easier than this.'_ I suppressed a groan.

"My boss needs people on her side. We were thinking about recruiting you for our group."

"Recruiting?"

"Yes, recruiting. There are Devils that _would_ force people in their groups, but we don't. We need allies and forcing you wouldn't help with that. Also, you could end up running away, and that wouldn't look good, and Seekvaira can't afford that."

"What would happen if I ran away? Also… Seekvaira?" She seemed amused, good thing my King wasn't here.

"Don't look at me, the only thing I'll say is 'Devil nobility', as for the first question," Another touchy subject, seriously, a fight would have been nice. "In most cases a runaway reincarnated Devil goes mad and transforms into a monster. Their bodies can't withstand the demonic energy on their own." I said grimly.

I really pitied those that ended in with bad Kings, they didn't have many options. It was misery or madness for most them. The government tried to prevent it, but between the nobility having a lot of sway and the Kings being able to hide well, there just wasn't much they could do.

"And your group wants me to consider this? I wouldn't be able to do anything if…" She didn't finish and didn't need to.

"Seekvaira is a good King. I would say she is one of the best." _'Not that I know any other, but that's not the point. She is good.'_ "But I understand your concern. I will just leave the offer there. Is there anything else you need?"

"… About that book…" I smirked at that. At least it wasn't like she didn't want to have anything to do with us.

"I'll see what I can do. Have these," I handed her two different fliers. "This," The one on my right. "is _my_ flier. Just call if you want to know anything, I'll tell you as much as I can. And this," The one on my left. "is Seekvaira's, call with this one in case of an attack or something like that." She took them and nodded. She was still processing everything; it would take her a while to call if at all. "I will come back in a minute if I get the book for you. See you later." And with that I teleported back to the house.

**[}-o-{]**

Dovray openly sighed in relief and the second I saw Seekvaira's worried look it shocked me. I had seen her concerned, but I couldn't remember her actually worried. I let out a sigh of my own, but this was one out of exhaustion. I would take a fight every day of the week over business talking and the like.

I started telling them what happened while I went to the library to get the introductory book on Sacred Gears. I also looked up the three books I had read when I woke up. When I finished, I looked at Seekvaira.

"We will go over details after you come back, but first let Dovray put a tracking array on them just in case." After that was done, I went back to Trina's apartment and gave her the books. I told her that I would come back looking for them at the end of the week or if she called. Also that in case her gear wasn't in the book I would bring the more specialized books for her to look for it. She didn't say much, still deep in thought.

An hour later I was in Seekvaira's study. We had gone over the conversation. We agreed that there wasn't much I could have said better. Her being able to tell when I was lying didn't help at all. We both let out a sigh and decided to just see what happened.

After a week I had visited Trina a couple of times. She seemed to ease up and regain her bored look after I reassured her a couple of times that nothing would happen if she refused our offer. I didn't know if it was an improvement, that look still unnerved me. We had had to change books three times until she found her Sacred Gear.

Other than that, everything returned to normal. But I was happy. There was a possible recruit for us. But more importantly, the wolf in the 'room' was listening to me. He calmed down when I told him, and he seemed to be helping me with the others. Now they looked like they were opening up to me. I named that first one: Sirius. I was also thinking about naming the others once they started listening to me. I went names related to stars and the like.

That really had made my week. I couldn't keep the smile off my face every time I remembered. There was no reason to be so happy, I just was. Seekvaira was amused once I told her the reason of my happiness.

I focused solely on that during meditation, I didn't know why but I just wanted them to listen. I had started seeing them as dogs instead of wolves. I wanted to be friends with them, have some fun.

With each one that joined my little group it became easier to get the others to listen. So much time spent on that also helped me improve my communication with them.

The first, as I already said, was Sirius, the cheerful one. Then came Arcturus and Andromeda, they were like the father and mother of the group. After that came Regulus, he tried to act like Arcturus, but he ended up looking cute, much to his chagrin and the group's amusement. After him came Narcissa, the serious one, she was a bit like Seekvaira. She got that name because she was the only white one. The last two were Pollux and Bellatrix, those two were a work in progress, they listened but only because of the group. If they were on their own, I'm sure they would act as they did in the beginning.

It was during this time that I had a little breakthrough. I probably looked crazy for a few days until I was able to control myself. The only thing the others got out of me was that I was working on something. Yes, I was probably being petty using Dovray's words against him, and I will admit the only reason I was not telling them was that. But cut me some slack, my mind was just a few months old for all I knew.

I had found something most other users didn't seem to have noticed, and if they did, they did a damn good job keeping it hidden. There were just one or two mentions of this. Maybe this Sacred Gear was not so bad. I had work to do, and a lot.

And work I did.

**[}-o-{]**

"Dovray, you crazy bastard!" I was currently running for my life.

Turns out the idea Dovray had was to carve mini arrays on throwing knifes. He drew the arrays in the handle of the knives. Then he just added a time delay to the formulae, and he had his personal thrown spells.

The worst part is that we came back to him kicking my ass.

His arrays were always his strong point. And now he could use them in actual battle and not just strategy and defense. Seekvaira was beaming with pride and happiness. Seriously, I wouldn't be surprised if you told me that she was casting a light spell through her skin. It made sense though, Dovray was her first peerage member, she had the most trust in him. Seeing him improve his fighting so much had to be a boost to her confidence for the Gathering.

Obviously being so little the arrays had limited power and complexity. But he still could do some serious things without tiring himself out like before. I had just jumped out of a gravity field that would have put me face first on the floor had I been in range. _'Interesting…'_

I decided that I had lost enough spars already. _'Sirius, now, don't hurt.'_ I heard a bark in my head. I had already reached the point where I could talk normally with the wolves, but that was only during meditation. Outside of it I was still struggling.

I threw the scythe in a way that had it to draw a curve from above and fall right on Dovray's head. He looked genuinely confused. I couldn't fault him; I was far, and the attack was not fast enough for him to not be able to dodge. I hadn't done something like this since the first week.

But this was not first week. _'Arcturus.'_ Another, deeper, bark. I spun my whole body to the other side adding speed to the flail throwing it horizontally. I had faith in this combo. If I could hit a bird with this then I could hit this tricky bastard.

Now he looked a bit concerned, he stepped aside to avoid the scythe and jumped to avoid the flail. He went to grab another knife from the coat he was using to keep them when something stopped him. The scythe had wrapped around his arm.

"Wha-" He couldn't finish his confused question when the flail wrapped around his leg. _'This round is mine.'_ With him trapped I swung both chains with him above my head smashing him on the ground and readied magic circles.

"*Cough* I give." He said and I vanished the chains. _'Good job.'_ Two different barks answered me. I could feel Sirius's pride. And Arcturus seemed to be telling me _'Did you expect less, stupid human.'_ I suppressed the need to roll my eyes. "What happed right there?"

"The chains moved." Seekvaira was the one that answered. She had been watching the whole spar. We had both decided to try our new tricks, so we called her to see what she thought.

"What? How?"

"I thought about something. If the Sacred Gear lets me store the souls and the souls can be found in me through meditation, then they are kind of part of me. Furthermore, the Sacred Gear is part of me too, so… the souls can be part of the gear."

"You had… the wolves control the chains?" He asked, he looked astounded, Seekvaira looked surprised and impressed. Damn was I proud of those faces.

"Yeah, that's basically it. Searching I saw that some users seemed to have control of the chains, at first, as the book does, I thought they were using wind magic or maybe some form of telekinesis. But then, when that combined that with what I said before I just had to try. Looks like I was right."

I couldn't keep the smile off my face. I just couldn't and I didn't even want to. I had taken a Sacred Gear that was basically some glorified chains and made it into a semi-conscious weapon. I was damn proud of that and it had just been one week of training with it.

"Still not as impressive as your knives though, those are pretty cool. Doesn't look like we well have someone dominate the spars for a while." I told him truthfully. I couldn't say who would win. It depended on reflexes, his to dodge my chains and magic, and mine to dodge his knives, I doubted he would use magic anymore unless completely necessary. It was more efficient that way for him.

"True, I'm proud of both of you, you have come a long way. Especially you Seth, four months and you can already fight pretty well." And I believed her, the face she had couldn't be faked, especially considering that she rarely showed emotions so openly.

"I try, Seek, I try. Although having a Queen piece helps a lot, not gonna lie." I said, even if I was damn proud of myself, I still could let myself be overconfident. We still hadn't heard anything of the stray magicians and every time I started to feel confident, I read the information we had about Sairaorg Bael. That was enough to get my ass back to training. That muscle monster scared the shit out of me.

I saw her eye twitch a little. She certainly didn't like me calling her Seek. But her name was a mouthful, honestly. It also was a lot of fun seeing the usually impassive get so easily affected by something like a nickname. Just in case I had asked Dovray in advance to avoid saying something that could be bad from her past. I had green light; he certainly enjoyed the looks in our Kings face each time as much as me.

With the spar and show done I sat down next to Iorek and started petting him while practicing talking with the wolves. Seekvaira was standing where she had been previously, no doubt thinking about the possibilities of what we had come up with. Dovray for his part went inside to look for drinks for everyone.

And I could have been enjoying that drink. But no, our peace went out of the window. Trina was calling, with _Seekvaira's_ flier.

**Author Note: I'm new to this writing thing, so any mistakes you think I made feel free to point them out. Also, I'm not even near the point of knowing this story to the smallest detail, so if you think I don't follow canon point it and I'll change it if it's not an intentional thing.**


	6. Someone Who Cares

**Raidentensho:** Thanks for the review. Sorry man, that would be telling.

**OnetimeMuffin:** Thanks, you don't even know how much that means. Every positive review, follow and favorite gives a lot of motivation.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Highschool DxD, neither do I own any of the multiple resources that I will use for the story in the form of (but not limited to) references.

**Nilrem Arc – Someone Who Cares**

"Over there, get her!" Was the first thing we heard. "Fuck, they are here, Aidan!"

"Go with one of the others after her, I will stop them with the rest!"

There were ten of them, looked like they took us seriously now that we had eliminated one of their teams. The one that spoke last, Aidan, he was giving me a really bad feeling. And the weird dagger in his hand gave a pretty good hint. Holy weapon.

"Dovray go help Trina and then come back. We'll deal with this or stall if we can't. Now, go!" And go he did, though the look in his face said he didn't like us fighting 8 vs 2. I didn't either, but King's orders and all that.

I summoned a pretty big shield of ice and took Seekvaira away from where we were. They were already firing their spells. The holy weapon user was just standing next to them. _'So, he won't come and just cover for close range? We can work with that.'_

"Slow them all for as long as you can and wish me luck Seek." I send a smirk her way and went out. I was not going anywhere near a holy weapon anytime soon, so I just run to avoid their spells while launching my own ice arrows at them.

Let me tell you, avoiding spells coming from seven different people was not an easy thing. I ran, jumped, ducked and blocked with the scythe, once I summoned my gear. Internally, I was urging Seekvaira to hurry the hell up. I was getting burned and cut by the second. Everything was small but that didn't mean I couldn't complain.

There was one good thing. They weren't moving. That was really good, either they were not really combatants, or they were underestimating us, either worked for me. And finally, everyone slowed down. Everyone but me that is. A circle the size of a small house with the Agares symbol in the middle appeared above them.

'_Now comes the fun.'_ I though. _'Arcturus, Andromeda.'_ I spun making the flail and scythe draw circles around me. Jumped right above a couple of spells before they hit and slammed both chain heads from above. All the moving would have made sure I didn't hit anything. Now I had the wolves. Two of them were out.

I send a couple of Ice lances their way, but they managed to get shields up. What they didn't manage was take cover before the chains wrapped around two of them. With the same move that I used with Dovray I took them out. They were only humans, and magicians at that. Didn't take a lot to knock them out.

With half their numbers they didn't look nearly as confident, except Aidan. _'The fucker thinks we can't do anything against him. What the hell does that dagger do? Doesn't look familiar.'_

I turned to look at Seekvaira. She looked tired. "Lower the power Seek!" I would probably need her slow to deal with the holy weapon user. I didn't like his confident look at all.

I showered them with Ice arrows. I could maintain up to ten circles for arrows at the same time, not for long though. I would have to take care of Aidan with my chains alone. _'Dovray, where the hell are you, you were against only two of them.'_

Fortunately, with the slow they couldn't cover for all my arrows for long. And then I saw it. When an arrow was about to pierce him it just went through his chest. It seemed to turn into smoke for a second. _'Are you serious?'_

"Hahaha, your face is priceless. You thought I would just stand here and do nothing while you shoot your weak magic? You truly are stupid." _'Well, here's hoping.'_ It was just him and one magician left. Aidan charged at me.

'_Sirius, the weak.'_ I swung the flail from above roughly in their direction. The holy weapon user looked at me as if I was stupid. True, the chain was not going to hit him. But he was not the target. With a thud the magician fell to the floor. Aidan looked pissed.

"Now we can play without interference, can't we?" I told him.

"Indeeeeed?" Seekvaira's slow hit him. I smirked.

"Or not. Sorry if you wanted a one on one. I'm not the noble type, much less with people that start a fight eight on two." Now that seemed to get something out of him. Though instead of fear it was anger. Didn't matter.

I swung my chains at him, they went through as the arrow had done before. I frowned while he smirked. Then I gave him a smirk of my own. That seemed to confuse him. Wasn't surprising to be honest, he was an idiot.

"Let's see for how long you can keep that up." I spun around letting the chains do the rest. They went through his body each time, I wasn't worried. Soon enough he was hit by the flail and sent against a wall.

Yeah, that's the thing with holy weapons, and demonic ones for that matter. All of them spend the user's energy to use their abilities. In a way they are like Sacred Gears except that they can be taken or given. Anyway, the rate at which you tire yourself depends on the weapon. They usually take power on their name, their fame if you want to say it like that.

Some weapons are created as holy or demonic, others _become_ that. It takes some serious events and the like for a weapon to develop on its own, but it can happen. The thing is, the less known and powerful it is the more it needs energy from the user.

Weapons like the Excaliburs and Durandal almost don't spend energy at all, what's more, the latter is said to overwhelm the user with its own power. But from there it only goes down. Which brings us to this guy. Either the blade was not that great a thing or he was weak, I would bet both.

"So, you are done too?" Came Dovray's voice from behind me.

"Yeah, you took your time." I turned; there they were. Trina looked fine if a bit shaken. Dovray didn't even look tired. They probably only tried to stall for Aidan to help them. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Let's take care of this, you have minds to work with." He paled and I laughed. It was early afternoon and we were in the middle of a town. He would be working the minds of people for a long time in order to ensure this was kept a secret.

My expression turned grim. I looked over the enemies and then at Seekvaira, she was walking toward us carrying a bundle of cloth. An uneasy feeling told me that was the dagger. She was also dragging her feet, understandable, that area slow was sure to drain her energy.

"They are all dead, either during the fight or because of the spell." _'Fuck.'_ I was seriously hating that spell. _'Wait, I killed a few with the chains, didn't I?'_ I would talk with them once we finished here. At least we saved Trina and got the holy weapon. Not sure what we could do with it.

If the church found out and it was a decent weapon they could try and bring trouble. I doubted it though, the truce was frail, but not _that_ frail. They wouldn't bring another war on themselves just for this. If the attackers were from the church then maybe, but these were a group of stray magicians, so it was probably safe.

"Well, let's go, I'm so tired I could fall asleep right here." I said, I had used a lot of magic, had used the wolves three times and that on top of the spar I had had with Dovray before coming. I could definitely use some rest.

"Can I… can I come with you." We turned to Trina who had talked. Dovray and I then turned to Seekvaira.

"Your call, boss." Was all I said. I swayed a little. "Dovray, take me back." I didn't think I had enough energy to teleport myself to the house. In the end I didn't hear what Seekvaira answered to Trina's question.

As soon as I was home, I dragged myself to my room and fell asleep as soon as my head touched the bed.

**[}-o-{]**

I woke up feeling like a truck had passed right over me. Which was funny, I had only gotten some minor injuries during the fight. But magic exhaustion does that to you.

'_Morning, Master.' _I heard Nico's voice in my head. Yeah, she insists in calling me master.

'_Morning, Nico, how was patrol?'_

'_Everything quiet, home… got worried.' _Arriving to see me passed out with my clothes torn was sure to worry her.

'_Sorry for worrying you, I was sparring with Dovray and then…'_ I started telling her what had happened. It always was relaxing to just talk to her. And I needed it with all the death of yesterday.

After I finished the story, I showered and brushed my teeth. I had slept through most of the day and the night. It was early morning right now. Good. I really needed breakfast.

"Dovray! I need double the amount of breakfast after yesterday!" I shouted once I entered the dining room.

"Ok!" Was the only answer I got.

"Not a morning person?" I turned to see Trina sitting in the table.

"I would say that after fighting eight people I have the right to be tired. That's my seat by the way." I stood next to her and took my seat once she left it. She took the one next to me. I shook my head.

"Didn't know there were specific seats for everyone."

"Seekvaira is the King, she goes on the head of the table, I'm her Queen, I sit on her right." She looked amused. "Go on, laugh it up. Seriously, it never gets any easier to call myself Queen. Good morning, Seekvaira." The later had just entered the room.

"Good morning, Seth. Good to see you are ok."

"You know me, that couldn't take more than a night's rest to recover. So, did something happen while I was out? Did she join or something?" I said pointing at Trina in a joking manner.

"She did." I blinked. I looked at Seek and then at Trina. I blinked again.

"Seriously?" Our King nodded. "Wow… can't say I saw that coming."

"Didn't you want to recruit me in the first place?"

"We did. But I thought it would take more time. Well, welcome to the club." Then suddenly I smirked. _'Let's see if you keep that bored look once we start training you.'_ That would be fun. "So, how much does she know?"

"She knows as much as we do about the attacks, there was not a lot that we hadn't told her already. I also told her about my… situation." I noticed a flash of hatred pass through Trina's eyes. Guess that's a touchy subject for females. That was good though, she would be more motivated for training.

"So, already gave her the book list for starters?"

"She did, and Trina would appreciate if you didn't talk about her as if she wasn't right here." She told me with a twitch in her eye.

"Right, sorry. Well, I'm looking forward to start training you, maybe we can get you into our spar sessions with Dovray." She just nodded. Didn't seem eager about battle training. Can't fault her for that, but she would have to get used to it.

That's when Dovray came in with the food. I thought I was hungry before but after seen the food I felt famished. I would have started inhaling the food right then and there. But Seek would have killed me if I did that in front of the new one.

"So, which piece?" I asked, that was something I was interested to know.

"We were lucky." Said Seekvaira, Trina looked miffed.

"I'm guessing one Pawn?" Our King just nodded; the new Pawn just turned her face to the side. "Don't feel bad, you know how the pieces work, we lent you a book on that. I was just lucky I had big energy reserves and a Sacred Gear. It also helps that Seekvaira wasn't as strong back then. And we don't really know how I was before reincarnating." She looked at me, confused by the last part. "Looks like when they messed with my Sacred Gear during the attack, I lost my memories. I don't remember anything before being reincarnated by Seekvaira here."

"I'm sorry." I just shrugged, at this point I wasn't bothered by that. It was what it was. "Anyway, it still pisses me off a little."

"Look at the bright side, you can promote. That's pretty awesome. If you train speed and promote to Knight, you could be faster than me." That's something many got wrong. While Queens got all the enhancements of the other pieces they weren't as strong as the actual piece.

Taking the same base strength, speed and energy reserves into account, a Queen would be slower than a Knight, weaker than a Rook, and have lower reserves than a Bishop. But they had everything at once, and that was their strength. A jack-of-all-trades of sorts.

My words didn't seem to have much effect on Trina though. I just shook my head and continued eating.

"Thinking about it, you never told us what your Sacred Gear was."

"Sonic Augment," She said while showing us her earrings, they looked to be simple silver earrings with a sapphire-like round gem each. "they let me have a sonar-like ability, I can locate things within a radius by sound, or sending my own sonic waves. I also learned to tell when people lie or hide things by the sound of their hearts, voice and breathing, although I need to be near them for that. By the way I've been wanting to ask…" She gulped and suddenly looked nervous. I had an idea what was coming. "I can see everything in the house and a bit outside… do you know what that thing that's outside the house is?"

I narrowed my eyes. "First, don't call Iorek 'thing'. Second, that's our Rook. Third, don't go around spying on us or I'll feed you to the wolves." For once all the wolves seemed to agree with me, the wild side was still there it seemed.

She nodded hurriedly. "But what is… Iorek?"

"A behemoth." Seekvaira was the one to answer that. Trina lost all color on her face. Yeah, I know how it feels. "Baby behemoth, he is smaller and weaker than a normal cub though. I was able to get him after his family abandoned him. He is our mutated Rook to be exact."

I guess Seekvaira learned that introducing people to Iorek without prior knowledge was not a good idea. I still planned to do it to someone someday, no way I would be the only one scared shitless with the introduction. Trina seemed to take pity on Iorek's situation for a second.

"He is adorable, you'll see. It's like having a gigantic spiked puppy with really big fangs and a horn." I told her, he looked at me in disbelief, yeah, I would too. "Like I said, you'll see, just don't panic when he greets you with a tackle and licking your face." I started laughing at her face when she went green.

"Seth," I turned to Seekvaira. "we need to talk later." I just nodded, my face turning serious. I had a good idea about what she wanted to talk about. _'Of course, she'd notice.'_

"Of course, but first I have to see this." She rolled her eyes at me while we all went to see Trina's first meeting with Iorek. It was interesting seeing her fidgeting. Actually, seeing her with any expression besides boredom was.

"Hey Iorek buddy!" He perked up instantly and run to my side. As I said, adorable. I started petting his head and continued talking. "We have a new friend big guy, go say hi, but be careful." I finished pointing at Trina. She seemed to relax a bit by my interaction but that wasn't much compared to the fear that Iorek induced naturally on anything.

"H-hi…" Was the only thing she got to say. Next thing I knew she was on the floor with Iorek licking her face. I couldn't stop myself and was on the floor laughing just as fast.

"Just pet him a little, he'll calm down." I told her between laughs. She hurried to do as I said and soon enough, she was sitting on the floor and Iorek lying beside her. "Told you so." I send her a smile, before turning serious and walking up to Seek. "Remember to start studying." I told her before both of us went inside the house.

When we were in Seekvaira's study I took a minute to enter meditation.

'_Now, you'll tell me who are you and what is the plan your organization has.'_ I asked the new souls in the 'room'. Just two of them, the first two that were took out by the wolves.

'_As if we would tell you anything, you killed us!'_ He was greeted with growls from the wolves. They were surrounding them, Arcturus and Andromeda on each side of me. The other cleared his figurative throat. Seems like it's difficult to let those things go.

'_Even if we wanted, we can't. Each of us swore an oath not to reveal anything. You probably saw that everyone you captured or defeated dies. It doesn't let me say anything even like this.'_ So that was it. A dead end. Again. A sigh escaped my metaphorical mouth.

'_What type of magic were you a user of?'_

'_Wind.' _Wow, he sure was cooperative. _'Fuck you!'_ I didn't want to deal with this guy.

'_Bellatrix, Pollux, have fun with that one, just don't banish him.'_ We had found out about that when I killed a bird while training. I wanted to know what happened if one soul attacked another. The result told us that with enough damage the soul just disappears, either continuing to where it would have gone naturally or just to nothing. We didn't know and I didn't want to think about that.

The pair looked happy for once. It looked like I had my personal discipline teachers. I left the meditative state hearing the guy howling. The souls felt pain, interesting.

"They can't tell us anything. That spell that kills them seems to be an oath. By the way one of them is a Wind magic user. The other is… less cooperative. I'm dealing with that."

"That's good to know, maybe you can take a look at the magic books with him and see if he knows something we don't have already."

I nodded, that was the plan. The wolves would make gathering info so much easier. We took our seats.

"Ten of them, one with a holy weapon." Was all she said once we were in her study with a chess board between us. Yes, that was worrying. They had a lot of people if they could do something like this. What would they throw at us next?

"If it continues like this it won't take long for us to need Iorek on the field." I said. And that was a headache on its own. Dovray would hate us if we set him loose and he had to take care of the mess afterwards. Hopefully Trina would be battle ready before then, that would be a great help.

"True." She nodded and moved a piece. "I talked with my parents last night. They can't do much. Although they did tell me we could keep the dagger." That didn't help me calm down. We would have to test and see if Trina or I could use it, I doubted it. Being able to wield a holy or demonic weapon was a rare gift. On top of that it had to actually let you use it too. Although minor weapons weren't that picky.

"Do we know what weapon it is at least?"

"A keris, Taming Sari to be exact. A holy weapon from the Malayan mythology." Heh, interesting. "The ability makes the user intangible for as long as they want unless they run out of energy." Knew that already but good.

"Hm, that's something I guess." I hummed. "Did you look up her Sacred Gear?"

"Mid-tier, although it's only because of its scouting, guard and spy capabilities if mastered, it helps little in battle aside from not needing to locate your enemies with your eyes."

That was not so bad, at least we wouldn't be ambushed. But in our situation… it wasn't what we needed. We needed power to deal with these strays, whatever they named themselves. But a pair of hands were useful no matter what.

That night we tested the holy weapon. Neither of us could use it, a pity really, but not surprising at all. And with that we went back to routine again, this time, with someone new by our side.

**[}-o-{]**

I got Trina to start physical training from day one. Obviously not with me, even if she promoted there was too much difference. So, we set up a training regimen for her.

Talking about physical training. I had a talk that day with Dovray, asking if he could make an array affecting gravity to help me train. After a couple of days, he came up to me and told me he could do it. Now I have some of his arrays drawn in my limbs and torso and the poor rock has been left forgotten in the forest. Then I started doing the same routine that Trina does. I am on her level while using the arrays after all.

Trina's reserves are really small so we decided that it would take too much time with little gain to work on that. We did make her start meditating. Not working on magic now doesn't mean not doing it ever. When she gets decent reserves, she'll start with that. She'll make up for the lack of magic studies through physical training though.

I on the other hand have been working on some new circles. Nothing too fancy, mostly variations of the ones I already have. Which isn't much, all I have really are arrows, lances and shields. But that is enough for now, when I get better, I'll work on fancy things, for now practicality is what I need.

Then there is weapon training, which in my case is half my Sacred Gear training. Trina decided to use a staff to battle. She also told us that she may or may not decide to go for spear or something like that on the future. We are ok with that. So, I help her train, while I practice close combat with my gear. Using the scythe by the handle and the flail grabbed with just two feet of chain.

Then there is full on Sacred Gear Training. For that we send Trina to patrol on towns to help increase her perception and range. From what I hear it's been going well.

For my part, there's not much to tell. I can't use the wolves all the time, it exhausts me pretty fast if I do, so I have to keep training on using the chains by myself. But I'm getting there, if a bit slowly. The wolves for their part have been amazing. Even Bellatrix and Pollux, they are dealing with the idiot. He still refused to help.

Also, I can fly. I can _freaking_ fly. Not for a long time, but I can _fly_. I can't tell you how amazing it was to just take the sky after a long morning of physical training. It was just awesome.

Also, with the cooperative soul, Robert I think his name was, we added a few things here and there on Wind magic to our library. The other as I said is still stubborn, I won't complain, he keeps Bellatrix and Pollux entertained. And while they are like that, they aren't troublesome for me.

Dovray for his part has been working on his knives a bit more but mostly on his aim with them. He doesn't really need to be accurate, most of them affect an area but if he can aim better the chance of _and_ actual damage will only go up.

Seekvaira has been throwing herself in meditative state almost every time she can. Last battle proved that being able to maintain an area with the slow is key. Even more when we have an enemy that may and probably will become even more numerous with time.

Nico is finally able to talk full sentences. Although that's just with me, but she is getting there. Her shape looks more defined from time to time. That's a good sign, it will take some more time for her to go solid, however.

Iorek for his part, started doing training too. With our discovery of the training arrays he can participate on spars without almost killing us, well, me, as I'm the only one that can match him physically even with the gravity circles.

Talking about spars, I had been training against pairs now. The team would switch each time at random. The only rule was that Dovray wouldn't use his knives unless it was a one on one. I still couldn't match a Dovray with knives plus Trina or Seekvaira, especially our King.

Like that three weeks passed and Seek got into the rotation with the familiar master again. I'll admit, having to deal with that guy again was not something I looked forward to. But it needed to be done in order to let Trina start doing contracts.

That's why I was delighted to see that not even half an hour in the forest and she had already found one. A Stymphalian Bird, it was basically a bird made of bronze. We were practically just starting to look for a familiar and it just came and perched on her shoulder. To say that we were dumbfounded would be an understatement.

By the way, if you are wondering why Trina lived with us and not her family… we didn't know. The only thing we knew is what I remembered from her apartment. Her _one-bedroom_ apartment. There weren't any family photos either. We didn't ask, she didn't tell. We didn't need to know.

Although, I had caught her smiling at nothing when she thought no one was seeing. It was a strange, but not unwelcome, sight. However, it told me something, she was happy. That was everything we needed to know.

And with that, another month passed. Five months since I woke up.

**Author Note: I'm new to this writing thing, so any mistakes you think I made feel free to point them out. Also, I'm not even near the point of knowing this story to the smallest detail, so if you think I don't follow canon point it and I'll change it if it's not an intentional thing.**


	7. Enter Sandman

**robocoaster:** Thanks for the review, I can't say anything regarding Senjutsu but reviews like yours keep my head thinking so don't hesitate if you think of something else. As for canon, don't count on it being as you know it, I'm changing a lot of things, both small and big.

**Raidentensho:** As for the True Promotion, no idea, haven't read that story. So, if you want send me a PM with the info and I'll see. For everything else, same as I said to robo, while I can't answer your ideas or questions, they certainly keep my head thinking.

**Mile De:** Thanks for the reviews, they mean a lot. And the thing about the familiar is: have you ever seeing someone use their familiar for battle in canon? Even in fanfiction they are used very little from what I have seen. With that in mind I didn't see the point in having a 'powerful' familiar, at least not for the MC.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Highschool DxD, neither do I own any of the multiple resources that I will use for the story in the form of (but not limited to) references.

**Nilrem Arc – Enter Sandman**

It has been six months since I woke up.

The last month passed without incidents. Seekvaira and I are getting worried. There are two options. Either the magicians gave up attacking in her territory or they are planning something big. We hoped for the first, but prepared for the second.

Our routines continued as they were before, not much happened. Trina can already fly. I can already match Dovray with his knives paired with someone else. Seekvaira almost doubled her power. Dovray is working on something new, again. I understand him a little more I think, he wants to prove himself. Iorek is a foot taller than when I first met him.

There were two events of notice in the last month. First, we celebrated Dovray's birthday. We didn't do anything crazy, really, just had a good time as the pseudo-family we are. Once everyone was at the table for breakfast, I made some decorations made of ice that lasted all day. I had to prepare that for a week, but it helped me greatly with my circles so I counted it as training.

Trina came up with an idea for a present and Seekvaira managed to get it. A set of knives made of special metal that channels magic better, also with embedded with gems for energy storage. He appreciated the present, I didn't. Those knives gave him a couple of weeks more of kicking my ass when paired with someone.

I also got the opportunity of knowing the ages and birthdays of everyone. Yeah, I felt pretty bad about not knowing. Seekvaira, whose birthday was in November, and I, they agreed that I should be around the age, are eighteen. Dovray was nineteen, his birthday was right that moment in September, and Trina was seventeen and her birthday was in October. Yeah, we would have a birthday per month until December. Gotta start thinking about what to do.

That's where another thing came to my mind. School. Seekvaira answered that we didn't really need to attend. We technically already had a job. And if we ever needed to work on something, we could take the exams necessary when the time came. We _did _live for thousands of years so there was plenty of time to get degrees and the like. Neither Trina nor me were complaining.

Another thing that happened during this time is that Seekvaira found something in her meditation obsession. She found a book explaining how to build a mindscape inside our meditative state.

With that not only did meditate get comfier after we build everything to our liking. Our minds became more organized, so during meditation it was easier to remember things or plan or brainstorm. It even made it easier to enter the state.

For the time being the only ones capable of doing it were Seek and I though. But it helped a lot. Our King thought out a method to slow down only specific parts of a target in order to save energy. Like slowing the legs of an enemy that needed to get close or away. Or slowing the hands of an enemy that was already close.

Me on the other hand used it to come up with ideas for new spells and improving the ones I already had. I still had to work in the library though, searching and learning circle designs and more info on how to work on my magic. So, I had to work on two fronts.

I had made a recreation house for me to stay in. Even started to put recreations of everyone inside. Though, they couldn't move unless I made them. Dovray in the kitchen or the library. Trina in the sofa with her headphones on. Iorek outside. And finally, Seekvaira in her study, in front of a chessboard.

Furthermore, the rest was a massive forest, much to the wolves delight, and a lake that was the figurative form of my magic reserves. The idiotic soul was kept chained for Bellatrix, Pollux and occasionally some of the others entertainment. I had already deemed him too dumb to actually know something of worth but his attitude and the way he talked to me each time I tried to get something out of him ensured his own suffering.

The other soul on the other hand was so cooperative that I left him go. He had added a lot of things to our Wind magic books and was overall a very helpful guy. So, I took pity on his situation and asked what he preferred. To stay and get a house on the new mindscape or be set free to continue with whatever the afterlife was like. He decided to go. I was the wielder of the 'Soul Warden' after all, I decided what to do with the souls.

**[}-o-{]**

So, there I was, playing a game of chess with Seekvaira in her study. Dovray was about to bring some tea and snacks and Iorek was out, he had decided to go running around the forest for a bit apparently.

That's when Trina came through the teleportation circle. I didn't even lift my head to greet her. This happened every day.

"Hi, welcome back." Was my greeting.

"How was your patrol?" Was Seekvaira's.

"I think I found a Sacred Gear user." Now, that got our attention. Both of us raised our heads to look at her.

"Go on." I told her.

"I was doing patrol to train my gear as usual, when I heard something strange on the limit of my range and decided to go nearer. There were two teenagers talking, one said something about a magic staff and the other mentioned a gauntlet. By the time I got close they had already started talking about normal stuff. But I know how they sound, how they look and their first names. I can certainly find them again if I have to." Was her report.

Seekvaira and I went silent, thinking. Could be something or could be nothing. But we weren't about to let a chance go just because of the odds of a pair of Sacred Gear users together. I looked at Seekvaira, it was her call at the end. But my face told her that I was all for trying to scout and recruit this two.

"Seth, can you have Nico scout them for a while?" I nodded; it was a good plan. Better have information on them before we went to- "When you think you have everything go and try to recruit them." I blinked.

"Wait, what?" I asked her confused. "You make it sound as if I'm the only one going."

"Because you are." I blinked again.

"And why would I be the only one going for the recruits?" I asked narrowing my eyes.

"Because you _did_ have a great part on recruiting Trina." We looked at her, she just shrugged and nodded. I sighed. "I also think you are a much better option for this type of thing than I am." She looked a bit ashamed of that last thing.

I understood. I may not be the most sociable guy ever, but I could do the job. Seekvaira was too much of a noble and serious lady. That and her cold gaze would scare anybody that didn't know her. Trina was new, and Dovray had too many duties already with keeping the house and the defenses. I sighed. _'Well, I _am_ the Queen after all…'_

"Ok… ok." I breathed deeply pinching the bridge of my nose. "I'll do it. I really don't want to but seems there are no options."

"For what it's worth I think you are good." Said Trina taking a seat at the sofa and getting her headphones.

"Thanks, that actually means a lot." She usually didn't say things like that. She wasn't the type to say something on others conversation if she wasn't part of it. It was nice of her. _'Now that I think about that, none of us is the talkative type.'_ "Once Nico gets back give her their description and general whereabouts and she will scout them." I told Trina. She nodded and started listening to music.

"Good, keep me informed." Said Seek, I just nodded and we continued the game.

**[}-o-{]**

Over the next week I kept getting reports from Nico. I was livid. My mood was so bad that on our spars it was just me against Iorek or me against the other three. I think I scared the wolves a bit when we met.

The girl, Lucie Pohl, a blond that had her hair tied in a ponytail and left a pair of bangs fall framing her face, the right one longer than the left one. She had a pair of light blue eyes that would put the sky to shame. Overall, she was a lovely sixteen-year-old girl, that's why her family… horrified me, to say the least.

She lived with his father and step-mother. They were horrible. There was just no other way to describe them. The man was a drunk, that enjoyed hitting his daughter for every little thing that went wrong in his life. The woman on the other hand only talked to her to give her chores.

Lucie had the staff Sacred Gear; it was a healing one. However, she had so little energy that just a healing a small bruise would make her pass out. It made me remember when I was starting Healing magic. But the important part was: it was a subspecies. Twilight Healing subspecies. She had named it herself, Caduceus Staff.

A light wooden staff that had silver strings coiled around its length that broadened at the end forming a pair of snakes and a pair of silver wings extended upwards. An emerald gem shined in between the wings and a pair of small ones acted as eyes on each snake. There was no mention of something like that on the books. And taking everything into account it was the only viable option.

She didn't seem to talk with anybody in school, always quiet, always trying to blend with the background. Using clothes that kept her hidden from the eyes of the world.

On the other hand, was the boy, Liam O'Brein. Fair skin, green eyes and auburn spiky hair. He didn't seem to have eyebrows. And due to his bad sleeping habits his eyes had permanent black rings around them.

He was an orphan. Being one of the oldest, sixteen years old, on the orphanage he probably didn't have many chances of a family accepting him. He also suffered from bullying from the other orphans due to her appearance and his personality.

He was quiet to a fault, barely talking unless he was with Lucie, who seemed to be his only friend and the other way around. Blunt but always honest, I actually liked his attitude. He was also very protective of Lucie; he would go mad just by seeing a bruise on her skin. Which was the reason she exhausted herself everyday to heal the bruises on her face.

His Sacred Gear was a gauntlet of leather that covered his right hand up to his elbow. Then there were sand colored metal plates covering the upside of his forearm and the back of his hand, with metal of the same color forming claws over his fingers.

He only showed it once that Nico could see. It was during a fit of rage because of Lucie. Desert Claw: a gear that let its user drain their enemies of their energy by touching them. It was like a lesser version of the Divine Dividing, which granted its Mid-tier.

One week was the most I could wait. I couldn't sit around anymore and just let them continue living like that. So, I got a plan to talk to them. I couldn't go to the orphanage out of nowhere and ask to speak with Liam, and going to Lucie's house was a no.

So, I made a risky move. I used Nico once again, this time telling them through her that the other needed their help on a park that was halfway between her home and the orphanage. It was bad to start lying but I needed to see them soon and that was the only thing that came to my mind.

They arrived as fast as I expected.

"Lucie?" Was all Liam said at seeing her arrive as winded as he was.

"Liam? Are you ok?" She asked worried.

"The voice told me you were in trouble." He told her.

"The both of you are truly." I told them. They tensed up and turned to face me. "Relax, let's have a little chat, shall we?" They didn't calm down one bit.

I knew they wouldn't. People in their situation doubt anyone they see. They wouldn't trust me even if I left a million dollars in the ground and just walked away.

"I know you two, better than you would think. I know your lives; I know your suffering. And I'm here to give you two a second chance. A chance of a real home." I saw a spark of hope in Lucie's eyes for a second before it vanished as fast as it came. Liam just continued being impassive.

It didn't matter I continued. "You don't have to accept my offer right away, but I do have something that I would be happy if you accepted before that. I can't in good conscience let you go back to those places. I have an apartment that I could give you two to stay until you reach a decision."

I had talked my plan with Seekvaira and she had helped me get them a place for them to stay without the pressure that would have been the house. She just smiled and said that that was exactly why she left the recruiting to me, I just groaned.

"There you will have time to learn what I'm offering and what I expect in return." The newcomer list of books was already waiting for them on the table of the apartment. "So, what is your answer."

"…" Liam turned to Lucie then to me. "Why?"

"Your gauntlet and her staff." They tensed up again. "I told you I know things. They are magical artifacts, a friend of mine needs help, and those artifacts would be great to have on our side." He turned back to Lucie.

"…We… we can say no at any time?" That they were already a step away from accepting told you how awful their situations were. I was a stranger, for all they knew I could be a serial killer or something worse.

"Anytime, I won't force anything on you, but I grant that your situation will improve if you take the offer." Not that it was a difficult thing, there weren't a lot of things that could make theirs worse. She turned to Liam and they staid quiet.

"We'll go." I suppressed a relieve sigh from escaping my lips.

"Tell me, do you believe in magic?"

"You said the artifacts were magical, I have seen what my staff does." I smirked at her answer.

"Good answer." I gave her a proud look, she almost beamed at it, I just knew. I made a mental note to always do that when she did something well. She probably didn't get much of that in her house. "I will be teleporting us there." Both of them looked intrigued and curious, Liam was less obvious but it was there, Lucie even looked eager.

Then I stepped closer to her and a light blue circle formed at our feet. The next second we were in the middle of the apartment I mentioned. It was simple, dining room, kitchen, two bedrooms and a bathroom.

"Welcome." I spread my arms showing the place, it wasn't luxurious or anything but to them it probably looked like a five-star hotel room just by the company they would have. "The kitchen has enough for you two to live for a while, I'm sure one of you knows how to cook." And that was Lucie, those chores would be of use at the very least. I looked at them, they couldn't keep their amazement hidden, neither of them.

"Now, as for the offer I want you to consider, there are books over there in the table. Read them and you'll understand." After pointing them I let them look around. "I hope you enjoy your stay." I took out a flier. "If you need anything just take this and think about calling me." I gave it to Lucie. "Before I go, any questions?"

"Thank you." That was all Liam said after a full minute of thinking. I was surprised that he actually talked.

"You are welcome." I smiled at him, put a hand in his head and shuffled his hair. After saying goodbye, I teleported to the house.

**[}-o-{]**

They called me three days after that and I teleported right away. They were seated on one side of the table looking really serious. Well, Lucie did, Liam just had his blank face. I took a seat opposite to them and waited. After a minute Lucie opened her mouth.

"You are a Devil." It wasn't a question but I nodded to confirm it to her. "You want to reincarnate us." I nodded again. "This friend of yours, can you tell us anything about him or her?"

"She is my King, technically she would be the one reincarnating you. Have you read about the Rating Games?" Liam looked at Lucie, she nodded. _'So, they divided the books, smart little ones.'_ I gave them a proud look once again, a small smile formed in Lucie's face and I think I saw something in Liam's eyes. "Good, in a year and a half she will participate in some games against people around her age. She has to impress some noble people in order for her to avoid getting into a marriage contract." I could see Lucie's eyes harden and Liam's scowl. "That's why we need strength, like your artifacts." They nodded. I waited to see if they wanted to say anything else.

"Were you a Devil before?" She asked.

"No, I was a human, just like you." I summoned my chains. "This is my Sacred Gear." They didn't look confused, seems like they had read about them too. "As you may or may not know they are something only humans can get." Liam nodded when Lucie looked at him.

"Why did you choose to become one." Difficult question.

"I didn't." They looked surprised and a little afraid in the case of Lucie. "I was attacked by a group that hunts Sacred Gear users. That's one of the reasons I took you here, it has defenses just in case. The point is, my King saved my life by reincarnating me. We have another person that did indeed choose to become one. I can get her for you if you would like." They didn't answer. Maybe bringing Trina would have been a good idea.

"You said you would tell us what you would expect of us." I nodded.

"We expect everyone on the peerage to be strong. We need strength to win in the Rating Game and to defend our territory from people like the ones that almost killed me. So, we expect you to train together with us, to help us as we will help you." They didn't say anything for a long time. I just waited; I had said everything I had to. If they refused then I just wasn't good at recruiting, no surprise there.

"We accept." Surprisingly Liam was the one to speak, even Lucie looked surprised.

"Liam-"

"I won't let you go back to that place." Was all he said. I smiled at him, he wasn't afraid to do what he had to, I liked that. This time I could see his lips twitching upwards when he saw me.

"I-" She started. "I… don't like fighting." She looked down. I thought about my answer carefully. Trina didn't like spars initially. She was not used to violence in general. Once the training was started and we had some light spars she didn't have anything against it. This was different, this girl had suffered violence for what was probably a long time. She could be afraid of being hurt. Or she could just hate taking part on violence altogether. _'In the end,'_ I thought to myself _'does it really matter?'_

"Then you won't fight." She looked up with his eyes wide in shock. "We will teach you how to make some shields depending in your magic affinity, then we will develop your magic reserves to help you use your Sacred Gear effectively. You won't have to attack anyone, and we will stop anyone that wants to attack you." I saw hope shine in her eyes once again, a smile forming in her face. I also saw Liam lips quirk up again at the sight of her. I smiled. "So, what do you say?"

"We accept." My smile widened.

**[}-o-{]**

And like that we got two more members. If you ask me as was surprised at how easy it had been, just like with Trina. But when I considered where they came from, I guessed I was not so surprised anymore.

Seekvaira used one Pawn on Liam and a Bishop on Lucie. Their value was surprising really, Lucie was only two Pawns. I guessed that Seekvaira had indeed come a long way from the moment she reincarnated me. I wonder how much I would have costed if she did it like she was now. Probably a Knight would suffice.

The point is, Seek decided to go for a Bishop on Lucie for two reasons. The first was that that way she used only one piece instead of the two with Pawns. I could see her logic now, with the rate that we were growing maybe those Pawns could get us two people as strong as Lucie in the future, maybe even more.

The other reason was that she would need the reserves boost. Her reserves were even smaller than Trina when she joined. With our Pawn it wasn't that bad a thing really but with Lucie it was a true problem. She didn't want to fight, so she would depend solely on shields and her Sacred Gear. For both she needed energy, energy that she didn't have.

So, she used a Bishop to boost that and took her under her wing with meditation. They would work on that exclusively before starting with magic. We had also tested her affinity. And I started to believe in something called fate. Or maybe our affinities were also connected to how we were, to our souls. Because she had an affinity to Barrier magic.

Now, you may want to know the difference between a shield of Barrier magic and one of my Ice shields for example. The difference is simple. Elemental magics have weaknesses, mine would be fire, Barrier magic doesn't have anything like that. The shields made of that magic were pure magical energy. That, however, had a drawback and that is, unfortunately for Lucie, that they consume more energy to be made.

The solution Barrier magicians reached was to make specialized shields. Which are shields specially made to stop specific types of attack. A Barrier magician would make a special shield to stop a fire spell and another to stop an ice arrow for example.

So that's what Lucie will be doing, meditate and study, for as long as it takes for her to be able to help in a 'spar' helping someone.

Liam for his part, is in a training regimen like mine, he is an allrounder. He is working physically on the same routine that Trina and I do. His Sacred Gear training is done during spars only, as using it outside of it is difficult without affecting someone else's routine. What we came up with, in the end, is having a rotation with the spars in order to have him participate in some spars every day. With the number of people we had, it wasn't that difficult.

When we tested his affinity, we found out that it was Earth, so we suggested that it may help him develop some spells to immobilize enemies to use his Sacred Gear affectively. What convinced him though was that I pointed out that with that he could also stop enemies from getting near Lucie. He spends his all rest time from spars reading up in Earth magic, it's kind of cute. The blush in Lucie's face certainly was.

We also tested both of them to see if they could wield Taming Sari, still no luck though.

But that only lasted a couple of days.

**[}-o-{]**

We were grouping in the teleporting circle. Lucie and Liam would stay, they couldn't help in a fight without any real training. So, it was just the original group and Trina.

When we appeared, what received us was a battlefield. There were monsters that looked like golems battling the magicians over the street. And the magicians, around twenty of them, maybe more. All of them pushing the monsters trying to get to their objective.

"It can't be…" I heard Seekvaira mumble. I got the idea. There was only one Sacred Gear that could make something like this happen. Annihilation Maker.

"And our guests arrive at last. Hahahahaha!" That crazy voice interrupted our thoughts. I turned to see a girl wearing gothic clothes. Short platinum hair with ribbons al over it and lavender eyes. She gave me a really _really_ bad vibe. She was at the back of the magicians. Apparently not even trying to get to their objective. No, that wasn't right.

She had a different objective. Us.

"Welcome to the party, little bats! I'm Walburga and I will be your host!"

**Author Note: I'm new to this writing thing, so any mistakes you think I made feel free to point them out. Also, I'm not even near the point of knowing this story to the smallest detail, so if you think I don't follow canon point it and I'll change it if it's not an intentional thing.**


	8. Wherever You Will Go

**GGPD: **Thanks for the review, you'll just have to continue reading to find out, won't you?

**robocoaster: **Thanks for the review, and yes, it hurt, that's everything I'm gonna say.

**Raidentensho: **Thanks for the review. First, I tried buddy, I really tried, but that story is just not my cup of tea, so I'll never know what the True Promotion is. Second, no, I can safely say that he won't be able to steal Sacred Gear from kills. That would just be too OP and I don't like and don't think I can write a godlike character appropriately. It also wouldn't make any sense with all the 'low-tier Sacred Gear' things I said about Soul Warden. That would have been one of the first things people would have known about the Sacred Gear. And something like that is instantly Longinus tier because… well, you could take the Longinus. In a way that would be above Longinus tier actually.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Highschool DxD, neither do I own any of the multiple resources that I will use for the story in the form of (but not limited to) references.

**Nilrem Arc – Wherever You Will Go**

"_Welcome to the party, little bats! I'm Walburga and I will be your host!"_

We stared at her. She gave me a bad feeling, the same feeling as the holy weapon user, but worse. Where was her-

"Everyone, go for the Sacred Gear user, I'll fight the crazy bitch!" Seth's voice brought me back from those thoughts. I turned to him. "Now, go! There are too many magicians!" He was right. With these many magicians they could capture the user at any moment.

"Everyone let's go. Be careful not to go in a straight line." I was not sure if Trina could maneuver well enough but it would be necessary. Three pairs of devil wings took the sky.

"Who said you could leave?!" I turned to see the girl having her arm wrapped by a chain.

"I did, are you deaf?" Seth had it covered. He was the strongest in the peerage, a deranged girl wouldn't be a problem.

Finding the Sacred Gear user was pretty easy. He was in the middle of his golems. We landed beside him. He had dark skin, silver hair and purple eyes. He eyed us warily until I fired a wind blade at a magician and Dovray shot a knife at a pair that were close enough to be affected by its explosion.

"Don't worry, we are here to help." I told him sending more Wind blades. I would have to work on that. I couldn't use my trait here. Too many enemies and we were in the middle of them, a circle would slow us too.

I saw Trina struggling to get close enough to use her staff. We would have to work on her speed, she couldn't match magicians. Without magic she would have to depend on speed, and right now even with a Knight promotion she was struggling.

The fight took some time but, in the end, the last one fell. He seemed to have been in the middle of communicating something to someone. _'Calling reinforcements most probably.'_

"We have to go; I can take you to a safe place." I told the kid. He seemed to hesitate for a second. He was exhausted, he wouldn't last if more of them came for him. In the end, he nodded.

"Eh? Everyone is already out? What a useless bunch you are!" That crazed voice again. Walburga, but she was-

"Where's Seth?!" Shouted Trina.

"The chained bat? He was an annoying one I'll admit that but, in the end, all bats burn rather easily hahahaha!" She said while a purple flame materialized on her palm. I paled _'Oh Maou, it can't be-'_

"Everyone emergency escape!" She shot the fire at me. I grasped the gear user and user a flier.

I appeared in the sitting room. Liam and Lucie looked at me, the fear must have showed in my face because they looked afraid. When Trina and Dovray appeared, I started working on the summoning circle.

All this were back up planning I had worked up with Seth in case of an emergency. The escape fliers where for situations like this one. The summon on the other hand was to summon someone that was outside in case something happened in the house. But it would help in this case too. I finished the summon and Seth appeared.

Nobody moved, nobody talked. Seth was there, on the floor. His upper clothes were gone, burns covered all his left side. His chest was barely moving.

"Summon… came in handy, eh?" His voice was so low that I doubt anyone else heard it. I knew I did just because I was right next to him. His voice also woke me up of my stupor.

"Dovray, carry him to the room!" I shouted, but he was already on it by the time I had finished his name.

The others looked helplessly as he took our Queen to his room. I could understand. He was our strongest member besides Iorek and even then, I had my doubts. And the young ones didn't even know that while Seth looked half dead his opponent was just laughing around.

"Everyone… alright?... anthem… burn… safe…" Seth's voice became weaker with each word.

"Everyone is safe, you too. Don't worry and don't talk." I answered him.

An almost imperceptible nod came from him.

"Leave, I'll take care from here." I told Dovray once he had left Seth on his bed. He seemed to doubt for a second before leaving, closing the door behind him. I knew he wanted everything but be away from our Queen right now. But there was no other way.

I took off my clothes and what little remained of his. This was the only method to save his life. We would all exhaust our reserves and not even get started if we used normal Healing magic. So, I used a special method exclusive to Devils.

By making skin to skin contact with the hurt person a Devil could transfer their magic reserves between bodies. This helped speed up the natural recovery while helping stabilize the patient.

Some frowned at the mere thought of the method, some used it for everything. But nobody could deny its efficiency. It put Healing magic to shame, even those with an affinity for it. The only condition was that it was only viable for people on the same peerage. It worked through the connection generated by the Evil Pieces after all.

While lying there I entered meditative state. It would help improve the flow of the magic, and calm myself down so I could think. And think I did.

In the end I came up with only reason for Seth to do what he did. Trina wasn't nearly as trained as to be able to detect an ambush of only one person in a battlefield like that had been. So, he had to battle the Incinerate Anthem user to keep her away from us. Just the thought of that battle made me shiver. Holy fire, it was the antithesis of what Seth was, a devil, and an Ice magic user. How he lasted so long was a surprise in and on itself.

However, if he didn't battle her it was almost guaranteed that one of us would have died before we noticed her.

That reasoning I understood. But what I didn't understand was why? Why risk his life to safe us?

"_You saved me; I owe you. And I decided something, I _will_ get you free form an arranged marriage."_

His words hit me like a hammer. _'Of course.'_ He felt like he owed us. But that was not everything. He needed us, he didn't have anyone, not even memories. So, he had to defend what he had. It was so obvious that I was surprised it had taken so long for me to see it.

And I remembered my words back then too.

"_I won't let you die, any of you."_

I would have to train harder once I was done healing him. What kind of King was I if I couldn't protect my peerage?

'_Were you thinking like that, Seth? The duty of us Kings and Queens?'_

So, I worked my magic reserves in my mindscape. I had made it into our house, with people and all. A frozen Dovray was in the kitchen, or sometimes on the library working on arrays. A frozen Trina was on the sofa with her headphones on. A frozen Iorek guarding outside the house. I hadn't added Liam and Lucie yet. Probably would make her be in the sitting room meditating while he sat besides her like a guardian.

And then there was Seth, the only moving one. There was no other way I could have made him. I couldn't make him frozen; it wouldn't have been him. It was difficult but I created an almost too real version of him in my mindscape. He would be outside training, or sitting with Trina listening to music together, or talking with the kids, or reading in the library, or cooking with Dovray, outside petting Iorek or in my study, waiting for a game of chess.

That was him, always moving forward. That was what drove everyone else, I noticed. That had made me work on my magic. That had made Dovray improve or better to say, create his battle abilities. That had cheered up Iorek. That had made Trina get past her hesitance with fights. That was inspiring the kids.

I had my doubts at first, but I couldn't have chosen a better Queen for my peerage. And I had to be a King worthy of such a Queen, I had to work harder.

**[}-o-{]**

"Seekvaira is taking care of him. He will be okay, but it may take some… time."

We knew, we already knew he would take time to recover. We knew but… it hit that much harder to be told. He had lost. _Seth_ had lost. We couldn't believe it; _I_ couldn't believe it.

For me, he was unstoppable. He had taken three magicians by himself when we met. He had taken eight of them with only Seekvaira as back up, and she was not a fighting type, when they had saved me. I saw him almost everyday kick our asses and we were teaming up against him.

But that witch with capital B had taken him out. And she had laughed. I had to step up my game, I had been next to useless in this battle. Would have to have a talk with Seekvaira to improve my training or something.

And that idiot, I would have to kick his ass once he woke up. He didn't know how much his presence meant for everyone in the house. I could hear Iorek whimpering outside, no doubt he knew, the baby behemoth was smarter than we gave him credit for. The kids where with me, they looked broken. I had never seen Seekvaira so out of control and Dovray looked utterly defeated when he delivered the news.

He didn't know how he impacted everyone.

"_Well, welcome to the club."_

He really didn't know how much that meant either.

It had been months since I had escaped my home, if you could call it like that. Dad was never there, and when he was, he was always with his phone in his hand like his life depended on it. I had the idea to test him one day. I dyed my hair pink. He never noticed. I doubt he looked at me at all.

So, I finally snapped and run away. Sometimes I wondered if he had noticed or not. But that didn't matter. I had been working on a shop for a month already. It gave me enough to pay for the small apartment I lived in.

And then I met Seth and the others. I had noticed the magicians following me, had to go out of my way to avoid them. And like that one day we met. He introduced me to the world I was now part of. Moreover, he introduced me to my new home and family.

He also did it amazingly, for me at least. I had told and proved many people that I could see through lies. They always went angry, nervous or uncomfortable. But he just sighed and continued like it was nothing. He didn't try to tell half truths or anything. He went to the point, even when the truth was not pretty.

And when I joined, he received me with open arms. It felt so nice to have someone accept me. Always being there to welcome me when I got back from training or patrol.

"_Hi, welcome back."_

He didn't know how much it meant. I didn't remember the last time someone had welcomed me home. Or anywhere for that matter.

Neither did he know how much it meant when he would glance in my direction to see if I was okay. Always checking if I was alright. He seemed to relax and smile if he saw me smiling. So, I did it occasionally when no one but him was watching.

He also looked confused sometimes, confused that I didn't mention going back home. Or didn't mention home at all. But he never asked, he knew I was ok and that was everything that mattered. I really appreciated that.

However, here we were. He was up in his room suffering and half dead. And I was just sitting on the sofa. I looked at my headphones. I didn't want to listen to music, I didn't even want to be sitting there. Not now that there was no chance for him to come down the stairs and ask if we could listen together. I wanted to be anywhere but there.

"Trina," Dovray's voice woke me up from my thoughts. "Could you look after the user, something came up." He looked better. Something must have happened.

"Of course."

But I had an excuse to leave now, and I took it. Looking after the kid was better than thinking about our Queen. Then I would have to train more, that would take my head off of those thoughts too. And it would help prevent today's events too.

**[}-o-{]**

"Seekvaira is taking care of him. He will be okay, but it may take some… time."

I couldn't believe my ears. Liam and me looked at each other. That couldn't be right. We had seen him, but I still wouldn't accept it. Seth couldn't have lost; our savior couldn't have fallen.

Because that was what he was. Our Savior. He had found us when the world insisted in ignoring our existence. Seth took us to a safe place, he taught us, and he gave us what we had wished for so long. A second chance.

A chance to be happy, that was what he gave us. A chance to have a warm home, a place where we were wanted and appreciated. A chance of a family that would care for us, that would teach us, and look after us.

Seth was nice. He never got angry, not even when I was smart. On the contrary, he looked proud when I was. I never could stop the surge of happiness that came with that look. My lips would instantly quirk up in a smile.

He also was nice to Liam. Even if it was embarrassing when he pointed out his protectiveness of me.

But most of all he let me be selfish.

"_I… don't like fighting."_

I knew I was being selfish. But Seth was telling us something that was simply too much to believe. And I had wanted to be selfish for so long. So I was. I knew he wouldn't accept it. I had read about the Rating Games, they were basically fights between peerages to compare their strength. But violence had hurt me and my only friend so much.

"_Then you won't fight."_

And he just sent my concerns away like they were nothing. He told me I could help in a fight without fighting. How crazy is that? He was accepting me, he was giving me a chance, he was even doing the same with Liam. How could I say no?

But the dream hadn't lasted. Here we were. He was upstairs fighting for his life. And I was sitting there like the useless girl my father always believed me to be. I shook my head. No, Seth wouldn't like those thoughts, he always got angry when I said something like that.

So, I just had to stop being useless. I had to meditate as Seekvaira had told me. So that I could heal Seth and Liam when they got injured. So that I could shield them when someone attacked them.

Yes, I had to train.

I turned my head to look at Liam, he was looking at me.

**[}-o-{]**

I stared at Dovray's back after he told us the news.

Lucie and I stared at each other. I saw the same disbelief that must have been in my face. I had seen him, but I didn't want to believe it. He was the strongest. I had seen him spar with Dovray and Trina and he took them with a smile. Seth couldn't have lost; our savior couldn't have fallen.

Because that was what he was. Our Savior. He had acknowledged our existence when no one else did. He had taken us away from dangerous places. And he had guided us to a new home. Gave us a second chance at life.

He took me in. _Me_, the freak without eyebrows, the creature with raccoon eyes. And he hadn't laughed at me once. No, he didn't seem to even notice that I was different.

He had become my new family, together with Lucie, and maybe everyone else. But he, he was the father that never cared for me, the brother that never looked after me and the mother that never accepted me.

"_So, we expect you to train together with us, to help us as we will help you."_

And he gave it to me like it was a condition. Like it was something I could reject. He was giving me something that I had craved for all my life and he said it like it was something we wouldn't want. So, I accepted. True, it would keep Lucie away from her house too.

But I accepted for me. He could be lying, but I didn't want to believe that the care in those eyes was faked. So, I took his figurative hand and made a gamble. I never regretted it.

Seth taught me how to train, what to study, what books were necessary or useful. He even helped me find ways to protect Lucie. He offered to be my first spar partner. He said I would need to start getting used to fighting. But it meant so much more to me. He wanted to be the first to train with me. Like a father would if you started doing a sport.

Moreover, he was always there, taking care of us. Always present and always shuffling my hair, sometimes to encourage me, sometimes to cheer me up, sometimes just to tease me. But I loved it every time. It was something a brother would do.

However, now he was hurt. He was hurt because I wasn't strong or prepared to go and fight together with him. He wouldn't be able to train me or teach me or shuffle my hair. All because I wasn't there.

I turned to Lucie. After a moment she turned to me.

"Never again." I said.

"We have to train." She said.

I saw her leave to her room, probably to meditate, Seth and Seekvaira had told her it was the best start for her. So, I would do as my brother told me to.

**[}-o-{]**

"Seekvaira is taking care of him. He will be okay, but it may take some… time."

My mouth felt so bitter after saying those words. My brother in arms had fallen. And he had fallen alone with nobody to cover his back. After all that time training and pushing each other in our spars. He fell alone.

I felt so useless. I hadn't felt like that since I had created the knives. They had been my way to prove myself. To prove that I was more than some traps and weak magic. Because that was all everyone thought about when you mentioned the Demiurge clan. A bunch of cowards and weaklings that hid themselves behind traps.

I had my doubts when Seekvaira reincarnated Seth as her Queen. But those had been blown away the first couple of months. He had thrown himself at training like his life depended on it. And in a way it was like that. I had been there.

He was afraid. But there was also a determination that seemed to resonate with me. So, I accepted every time he asked for a spar. It would also help me after all. But he was quickly starting to leave me behind. Even with a weak Sacred Gear and being new to magic.

He told me, he had a Queen piece, and was more oriented to battle than me. I understood that, but it didn't help me feel better. So, I looked for a way to improve, to battle like he did. To prove Seth, Seekvaira and the world, that us Demiurge were more than traps.

And thus, I did. I found a way to be strong, I had found a way to prove myself. The looks of pride they gave me made every second of thought and work worth it. But he also showed me that we were the same. He took a weak Sacred Gear and made it into a fearsome weapon.

He proved me that we were the same. The world would laugh at us. A trap specialist and one of the lowest-tier Sacred Gear. But we would prove the world our strength when the time came. He had become my brother ever since.

So, I was ashamed of myself. I had let my brother fall alone. I wanted to hit myself.

'_What should I do?'_

"Dovray," I turned to see Liam looking at me with a familiar determination in his eyes. "Could you spar with me in the afternoon?" It was a morning, just like that one. I could see Seth's shadow behind the kid.

'_So, you brought another brother, didn't you Seth?'_

I just nodded.

**[}-o-{]**

Iorek whimpered. He smelled it. Nobody had told him, and that all the prove he needed. Seth was hurt. He smelled it. The scent of burned flesh. The scent of blood. The familiar scent of Seth. Everything put together.

Iorek whimpered. He could remember. His first family, they had left him, because he was weak. Then a new family came and took him it. But they were different and they were busy. So Iorek was still alone.

"_Hey Iorek, want to go for a walk?"_

And suddenly a new one came. And Iorek wasn't alone anymore. He had a partner; the mornings were theirs. He had someone to run with now, like his first family had done, but never with him.

He wasn't like the first family. Seth always visited, always accompanied Iorek, even when he couldn't run. Seth always talked to Iorek, telling him what he needed to know, so he wouldn't be worried when left alone. Seth didn't think Iorek was weak.

"_It's still amazing."_

It didn't matter that he called Iorek 'It'. He had heard, Iorek was small and weak. But he still thought Iorek was amazing. Seth was nice. So Iorek was there when Seth was sad. As he had been with Iorek. They were there for the other. Side by side.

Seth was family.

But Seth was hurt. It wasn't there, but Iorek smelled and felt it.

Bad fire had hurt Seth.

Iorek was going to guard the house, as always. But if he ever saw the bad fire. He would hunt it and he would destroy it.

Because nobody hurt Iorek's family.

**Author Note: I'm new to this writing thing, so any mistakes you think I made feel free to point them out. Also, I'm not even near the point of knowing this story to the smallest detail, so if you think I don't follow canon point it and I'll change it if it's not an intentional thing.**


	9. Point of no Return

**GGPD: **I thought I had made them obvious enough but don't worry I don't plan to make chapters like this anyway. I will continue centering around Seth only. I just wanted to show the other's point of view and how everything wrapped up. Looks like I didn't do a good job, I thought it was my best chapter to date but nobody said anything besides you. Thanks for the review though, I'll keep that in mind if I do it again.

**Guest:** I'm not surprised, I have been updating daily for a while. I don't know if I will be able to keep that up though. Mostly because I'm starting to write another story, that I won't publish just yet, on the side to keep my mind from focusing on this too much. Thanks for the review.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Highschool DxD, neither do I own any of the multiple resources that I will use for the story in the form of (but not limited to) references.

**Nilrem Arc – Point of no Return**

Darkness and numbness. Once again.

'_Heh, I thought it would be a long time before I felt like this again.'_ I thought.

I almost died. Again.

That fight was… pathetic. Those flames were just unfair. They even burnt my chains. I had to re-summon them every time, draining my energy. And my spells were even more useless. I had never felt so outmatched.

I was already sporting burns everywhere and panting with sweat covering my body when I found out. If I had the wolves coat the chains they resisted and restrained her flames to some extent. So that was our _fight_, a battle of energy, one that I knew I was losing. I had all the weaknesses against me.

That didn't matter. I just had to stall. The others couldn't take this lunatic monster on while on even grounds. Much less if they were caught off guard. I knew they couldn't. I had sparred with them all. Even if Iorek was here we would have had problems.

No. I couldn't leave. So, I chained her with the wolves coating the chains and waited. She got impatient and added more power to her fire. It didn't matter, as long as I had magic, she would stay chained. She shouted and cursed but I just smirked.

My body was giving up, but it didn't matter. She would stay there, away from the others. I was their Queen. I couldn't call myself that if I couldn't watch their backs.

But in the end, I just couldn't keep it up forever. The chains disappeared. And the fire was set free. Free to burn me away. I felt it in my soul before I felt it in my body. It felt like my body was destroying itself. And on top of that was the true injurie where the fire hit. There, drawing a spiral with the center on my shoulder, was pain itself. It burned my body, my mind and my soul, all at once.

I still could remember her words before passing out.

"Nirlem will rise, little bat. And we will show that chaos is necessary for true results to show."

Everything went black after that.

And here I was, back in the middle of the darkness once again. But I wasn't alone this time. The wolves were with me. My pack.

Some where openly whimpering. Even Pollux and Bellatrix looked downcast. All of them mourned. Except Arcturus. He looked grim, angry and savage. I understood. All this time communicating with the wolves had done something else. I had an understanding of them. And I had become one of them. That's why they followed me.

I was the new Alpha.

And now someone dared hurt the Alpha, someone dared hurt the pack. They would be hunted and they would suffer. I understood, and I took the same expression as him. I was weak, that would change. Fire or not, Holy or not, Longinus or not. I would step all over them. I would stand on top. Or I would die trying.

Never again.

**[}-o-{]**

I woke up from the darkness once again. Looking around as best I could I noticed that I wasn't alone. There she was, Lucie, taking seat on an armchair on a corner of the room. She seemed to be meditating.

I felt my body. I was ok, weak, but okay. Nowhere near as bad as last time I had woken up from the darkness. I could move my hands a bit. I could feel my feet. I sat on the bed and kept my gaze on Lucie.

I remembered the last time I had seen her try to meditate. She didn't have a problem with sitting still, but her mind was always moving. That made her struggle. You could literally see her eyes darting around behind her eyelids. Now she seemed calm. Some time had to have passed for her to have improved this much.

"You seem to be doing well." That broke her out of her meditative state. She looked around to see who had talked. Then her eyes focus on me and she froze. I saw tears form in the corner of her eyes and she started trembling. Next thing I knew she tackled me with a hug and started sobbing on my chest.

'_Did I had this much effect on her after just one week?'_ I thought surprised and a bit bitter, just one week of affection and she was like this. How much had her family hurt this poor girl. I started patting her back.

"I… We… were so worried!" She cried out and started sobbing again. She calmed down after a few minutes but didn't let go. She clung to me like I was going to die if she didn't. She must have been really scared.

"Hey, calm down, ok? I'm not going anywhere. Now, tell me what have I missed? You seem to have meditation down, that's impressive." She positively beamed at that and started babbling on everything she had been working on.

I was out for a week apparently. She had worked on her meditation most of all. And when she got it down to a degree, she started working on her Barrier magic. She could do some specialized shields, and while they were small, they could do their job. She also could heal small wounds with her Sacred Gear without passing out.

I praised her for everything, and with every praise she seemed to glow brighter each time. I was this close to asking if she was learning Light magic too. When she ended her rant, she seemed to realize that she had to inform the others and volted out of the room. I chuckled to myself.

Then I heard feet running upstairs and I felt his warms around me before I saw him. Liam had done the exact same thing that Lucie had done. If hers had been surprising his hug left me completely gobsmacked. He sobbed a little before he looked at me, tears running down his eyes.

"I missed you, bro." And with those words it was like a hand had clenched around my heart.

I understood. This kid had lived his life thinking he was worthless. With people choosing others over him and only one friend. But I had all but adopted him. I was his family now. I put a hand over his head and shuffled his hair. He seemed to tear up even more.

"Wow, that hug was something else. You must have trained like crazy to get that strong, eh?" He nodded, a rare smile on his face. I hugged him tightly against my chest. "Don't worry Liam, I'm not going anywhere anytime soon." I whispered in his ear. He nodded again while the tears kept falling. I saw Lucie smiling from the door, Trina already by her side, I radiant smile on her normally bored face.

Soon Liam started telling me what he had done. He had trained on everything we had talked about. Looked like Dovray took my place in sparring against him. His strength and speed were already improving. And he said his circles just needed some more work or his reserves more energy for him to be able to use a spell or two in spars without it exhausting him. When he ended, he took a seat on the bed. As near me as he could without seating on me. Lucie on the other hand wasn't as reserved, she sat on my lap. I turned to Trina.

"Seems like I missed your birthday, didn't I? Sorry about that." I told her with a sad smile. She shook her head with her eyes tearing up.

"Idiot." She came up to me and gave me a hug. "Don't do something like that again and we are even." She all but begged me, it hurt to see her like that.

"I can't promise that, but I'll try." I told her and she gave me a smile. "By the way, there's something under the bed for you." I gave her a wink. She looked confused but searched anyway. That was the gift I was supposed to give her on her birthday. A guitar. I figured with as much as she liked music she would like to learn. Also, we had thousands of years so she could take her time to do so.

When she took it out of the case and looked at it, she was beaming in happiness. She hugged it and gave me a thankful smile. I just returned it with a smile of my own. Seek and Dovray had arrived already. I could _feel_ the relief coming from everyone on the room. I couldn't keep the smile of my face.

"So," I cleared my throat and everyone looked at me. "Dovray, Liam, could you help me get outside? I think we lack a peerage member here." They nodded and each wrapped one of my arms around their necks. Like that they got me outside where I saw my favorite cub ever. "Hey Iorek, how are you doing buddy?!"

In an instant he was standing by my side, but he didn't tackle. That's our oversized puppy for you, as smart as ever. He was pushing his horn against me affectionately.

"I missed you too, Iorek." I told him petting his head. I sat down against the house and looked at everyone. My family surrounded. "So, I am the Queen, I need to be kept up to date, don't I?" I asked and everyone smiled at me.

Trina seemed to have changed her physical training for a more speed specialized one. That sounded like a good idea, if she couldn't do magic, she was better with speed to get close to magic users.

Everything else was the same. She really struggled with meditation, still having problems with it after all this time. We would have to look it up and see what the problem could be.

Dovray was working his arrays onto some communication devices to avoid a situation like last attack. That was because while, yes, we had communication spells they used an amount of magic that you just couldn't shrug off in a battle. So, Seek had gotten him materials and magic storage gems to work with for that.

Seekvaira herself had upped her Wind magic training for situations in which she couldn't use her trait without affecting us. She also informed me that we had the attention of the higher ups now that we were being attacked by an organization that had a Longinus user working for them.

Looks like Walburga was a former member of a terrorist magician association, Hexennacht. Little more was known aside from the fact that she had Incinerate Anthem.

We didn't have to be too smart to tell that Nirlem was the name of the group of stray magicians. But Seek's research showed nothing. Either they were relatively new or they were very good at hiding. We were inclined towards the first option after dealing with them all this time.

However, what we _did_ get was a pair of fliers from Lord Asmodeus (One for Seekvaira and one for me) in case we meet her again. And man did that help us calm down. Things had been getting out of hand lately. It felt good to know we had back up.

"What about our… guest?" I asked, referring to the Sacred Gear user we had saved.

"Well, for starters, he really is the Annihilation Maker user," My eyes opened wide in surprise, we did think that at first but that was just thought of the moment. We had really met two Longinus users in one day. "And he has been staying here, although he is not very… responsive."

"As in 'me when I woke up' not very responsive?" I asked, she nodded. I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. I was not recovered enough to deal with that shit. "Well if in a week he hasn't said anything then I will try to talk to him but I wouldn't hold my breath." They seemed to relax._ 'I'm worried these guys will start leaving all the talking to me.'_ I thought while sweatdropping. "What time is it? I'm hungry."

After that I spent a couple of days just recovering. Which meant only studying in the library and working in circle design. I also had the time to look at Trina's meditation problem.

"You have to be kidding me." I said. _'Nico, call Seekvaira.' 'Yes, master.'_ I pinched the bridge of my nose and started grinning like a madman. While this happened, Trina was just looking at me confused.

The problem wasn't just that Trina was doing meditation wrong. The problem was that Trina somehow had done meditation so wrong that ended up using another meditation technique altogether, all this _on accident_. I couldn't believe it.

You see, our meditation technique is, on a basic level, clearing our mind and looking inside ourselves. Trina had gotten the first part right, the second however, she didn't. She was looking at _everything_. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the basics of Senjutsu. I had to get some serious control over myself to stop me from laughing until I fell on the floor.

A minute later Seekvaira came in looking at me questioningly. I just pointed at Trina.

"She has been attempting Senjutsu meditation." I said bluntly. Trina looked as confused as before. Seekvaira, however, looked I had told her Trina had the True Longinus.

"Are you certain?" I just nodded and told Trina to tell Seekvaira what she had told me. After that I pointed at the book, I had found that said a bit about Senjutsu meditation. "Do you think…"

"We would have to get a more specialized book." I had already thought about the same thing. We could have Trina train Senjutsu instead of magic. The problem was that Senjustu took years to learn, much less master. There was also the thing about it driving you mad if you used it incorrectly. But Trina had a bad disposition to magic to begin with, so getting her to use Senjutsu wasn't a bad plan. We just needed more information.

Seekvaira nodded. I turned to Trina.

"Continue what you are doing, if you feel anything at all tell us." I said, she nodded.

Aside from that my time in the library was pretty boring, usually just working by myself. But there were also the times where Liam or Lucie would come to study the supernatural world or magic. So, I acted as teacher while I was at that. One, because I had the time. And two, and more importantly for me, they were really cute, like a little brother and sister.

It was just plain adorable each time I praised Lucie and she beamed at me. Or the smile Liam made when I shuffled his hair when he got frustrated with his circles. They were cuter than Iorek, and that was saying something.

As for my favorite behemoth cub, I would go out everyday in the morning to talk to him for a bit. I missed our runs and, by his whimper when I mentioned it, he did too.

And like that a week passed. I was ready to start training and training hard. But first, I had a talk to do. Our guest didn't step outside his room, we had to leave a tray of food outside for him to pick up. _'This is going to be a pain.'_

"Hello, you there?" I called while knocking. Of course, he was there, I just wanted to see what he would do. Apparently, nothing. I sighed again and just opened the door. He was seating on the bed, I just went and sat in a chair that was in front of a desk.

"It's impolite to enter another person's room without permission."

"It's impolite to ignore someone when they are talking to you. Especially when they are giving you a place to stay and keeping you safe. Don't you think?" I said, he looked away. "Anyway, I have a question for you. Do you have somewhere to go?"

He looked at me. And he kept staring at me for a while, I just waited. I had time, and this kid definitely didn't make me feel nervous. There was just not much you could be afraid of after facing Holy fire as a Devil. After a while he gave in.

"No, I was part of the Church, they wanted me to be the next Dulio Gesualdo." Dulio Gesualdo, The strongest exorcist, user of Zenith Tempest. Made some sense, train a Longinus to replace another one. "I didn't, so I left. After that I have been wandering. Walburga has been hunting me for a while now." So, he disagreed with the church, not the craziest story ever. Wait.

"Did you say Walburga was hunting _you_?" He looked at me oddly. I frowned. "We have been dealing with a group of stray magicians for months. They were hunting Sacred Gear users in general. But you are saying this girl was hunting you in particular?" He frowned and nodded. He seemed to be deep in thought. I left him be, I needed to think too.

That changed everything. If Walburga was hunting just him then there was a chance she would come after us now. Not only through a normal attack, they could try to attack the house. That was troublesome, we had practically doubled our numbers but Liam was not ready to battle and Lucie wouldn't battle at all. And now we had to cover two fronts from attacks. '_Troublesome._'

"Ok, that was certainly informative." I said bringing him out of his thoughts while pinching the bridge of my nose. "Now, another reason I came here. Would you at least go to the dining room to eat? Dovray has a lot of duties, he doesn't need to bring you a tray a food for every meal too."

"I won't join your peerage." He said bluntly.

"Ok. But that's not what I asked." I said just as bluntly. He looked dumbfounded. "What? It's ok, you said no, that's it. We won't force you; we prefer loyalty. And it's not like our group needs to deal with a Stray Devil so there's that too. Much less a Longinus stray devil."

"…Ok. I'll go." He said warily.

"Great, now come, breakfast should be ready and I'm starving." He stood up and followed me slowly. Once we reached the dining room, I took my seat next to Seekvaira while he stood next to me. Looked like he didn't trust the others. "Trina, could you let him sit next to me? Thanks." And like that he sat next to me, everyone else was in front of us except from Seekvaira who was at the head of the table. The kid looked confused.

"Aren't you the King?" He asked. Everyone looked at him. He squirmed a little. To say I was shocked by the question would be an understatement.

"Why would you think that?"

"When you were hurt everyone acted like the world was ending. And I heard them talk about you pretty highly. Also, you were the only one to really try to talk to me." My eye twitched at the last part. _'They are really going to leave all the talking to me.'_

"That's so sweet of you guys." I said to everyone with a smile. I was nice knowing they were so worried. The young ones beamed at me, Dovray just returned a smile, Trina looked away and Seekvaira nodded but I think I saw a tiny blush on her cheeks. "And no, I'm not the King, Seekvaira here is, I am the Queen."

He nodded and started eating. "That makes sense I guess, the second most important one of a peerage." I nodded. In a way it was true, but in another one it was wrong. I was or would be somewhat important politically but aside from that I was the same as everyone else.

"In a way, yes." Was all I said and we continued eating. "I still don't know your name now that I think about it. I'm Seth by the way, these are Seekvaira, Dovray, Trina, Lucie and Liam." I said pointing at each while they greeted the kid.

"Leonardo." He said plainly and we continued the meal without talking.

After that I went outside, he was following me. I felt like there was a lost puppy behind me, but each time I would try to pet it, it would go away. So, I just let him be. He was in for a surprise.

"Hey Iorek, we can finally start running again, buddy!" Not for the first time, I wondered about behemoths and teleportation magic. Leonardo fell on his butt, his face now as pale as my skin, which for him was saying something. "Say hi to our oversized puppy or baby behemoth, either is fine." Iorek barked angrily at me. "Or frightening beast, too." The oversized puppy nodded at that. He was too cute for his own good, I swear.

"A behemoth… you guys have a behemoth… as if it were a dog…"

"Hey, nothing like that. He is a friend, a partner, and a family member. Never a pet. It's just that he does act like a puppy from time to time." I said petting said puppy's head while he rubbed it against my palm.

Leonardo just nodded dumbly, still shocked.

"Now, if you want to follow me, you won't be able too. But I will come back in an hour or so. So, wait here if you want or go back to your room. See you later." And with that Iorek and I started our morning run. _'Maou did I miss this.'_

When I came back Leonardo was waiting. It was cute in a way.

**[}-o-{]**

After that I returned to my normal routine with some extra effort. Not much though, I could feel Seek watching my back like a hawk. She had caught me over exercising and had given me an earful.

Another gaze I felt was Leonardo's. He was never away from me, except when it was nighttime or when I was running with Iorek, the rest of the time he was always within vision range. He seemed to be analyzing me. Why? I had no idea, but I had the impression that he was trying to understand me. Something I had done had puzzled him apparently.

He was a concern though. Well, not _him_, he was a good kid. But him being here was a concern. I had a talk with Seekvaira. We had decided that someone would have to stay in the house and watch over the kid in case of another attack. Iorek was a pretty good guardian but Walburga could kill him easily, she was that dangerous.

So, it was decided that I would stay along with Iorek and Leonardo. I may not be able to defeat her, but me and Iorek could, and easily at that. The chains had gained another layer of awesomeness during the last fight. They restrained abilities to an extend when the souls coated them, it was like having the wolves bit down and restrain the target.

So, I just had to chain her and Iorek could do the rest. Maybe he would get burned a little on the charge. But we could win. The others would have a flier for both of us just in case too. We were as prepared as we could be.

And like that the third week since the last attack passed. The first week of November was gone.

But in all of this I hadn't forgotten my loss. I would never. Our bodies don't scar, magic doesn't leave scars. So, I had to do something else. I got a tattoo. A spiral of black tribal flames that centered in my left shoulder, up to the start of my neck and down the middle of my bicep. Seekvaira said I could have it gone with just a bit of Healing magic. I would never have it removed; I would carry that mark for the rest of my life. It was my shame to bear, a constant reminder that I needed to be stronger.

Stronger for the peerage. Stronger for the pack. Stronger for the family.

**Author Note: I'm new to this writing thing, so any mistakes you think I made feel free to point them out. Also, I'm not even near the point of knowing this story to the smallest detail, so if you think I don't follow canon point it and I'll change it if it's not an intentional thing.**


	10. Open Your Eyes

**Important! Next chapter we are officially enter MY canon time. What I mean by that is that I changed canon's timeline. I saw it, and it's just stupid. Basically, they go through a Volume each month… am I the only one that thinks that's ridiculous? Especially considering everyone in Rias peerage's growth rate. It doesn't make sense. It also shames possibly one of the more badass characters of the series, Sairaorg. Why? Because you have Issei, who has been basically a loser all his life and Sairaorg that has been working his ass off. And then Issei beats him because reasons… No, just, no.**

**So, that's why I'm starting canon earlier and spacing canon volumes to give them more time to get stronger. Everything happens as the light novel says but in MY canon everything starts on Issei's first year. I think I had to explain this here, because then it would have been confusing from now on for some people. Also, we are just entering canon TIME. But having Seekvaira's peerage enter canon will take another year of timeline. But don't worry, it won't take as long as it sounds.**

**GGPD: **That's something I really wanted to change from canon, all the shit happens to Rias's peerage. That doesn't make sense, if the WORLD is being threatened by a terrorist organization, then why the hell are they constantly attacking the same country? That's actually why I made this Arc in the first place. I would have thrown them in canon earlier if I didn't want to change this. Anyway, thanks for the review.

**Zephyr47:** I understand man, you just get annoyed if it looks more as an original story than an actual fanfiction, that's kind of what I get from what you said at least. As for being on a story of mine for 20 chapters, don't worry, I don't have it in me to write an arc that long. And as you may or may not have read on the note at the top, canon is coming. Thanks for the review.

**faithful despair: **Man, I just want to say that you are awesome. It's not really criticism that I want (it's welcome though) but I want to know what people like about my chapters too. It's really refreshing to know that I did something right.

I really like those moments too to be honest. The pseudo-death of Issei in canon was probably my favorite moment of canon, shame that we didn't get as much detail on everything as I would have liked. And as for something like that happening in my story, I wouldn't put it past myself.

I know, I wanted to write something like that too, but I feel Seth and Seek haven't connected too much for now. At least not as much as him with the new recruits. You'll get that scene though, so there's no need to riot.

And don't worry, I have just been writing as the story comes to me. I'll probably be slowing down sometime this week or next one. Thanks for the review.

**WOW, that took a while, on with the story.**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Highschool DxD, neither do I own any of the multiple resources that I will use for the story in the form of (but not limited to) references.

**Nilrem Arc – Open Your Eyes**

Months had passed.

We never relaxed, even with that. If Nirlem had achieved something it was making us keep our guards always up. We never stopped training, not that we would anyway. We still had to back Seek up anyway.

Everyone's training was going great. Sadly, I hadn't found something new to train so I mostly polished what I had. I did get some pretty amazing spell circles to work. Maybe they would come in handy in the future.

Trina was already an unofficial Knight, even without promotion. And that wasn't even counting her talent for Senjutsu. Seek had managed to get a book on the subject by New Year's Eve. Once we had that we learned that she had advanced pretty well for someone that hadn't had any idea what she was doing. I could only praise her luck.

But when she got the book and actually learned what she needed to do she improved a lot. She still isn't even near the point of using it on battle, but she can speed up her recovery time enough to be of notice. She still exhausted herself after a bit of doing this, but that didn't make it less amazing for someone that wasn't a Nekoshou or even a Youkai.

Then there was the cute oversized puppy. He had grown another foot. He now towered above us. That didn't make him act any less cute though. Sparing with him was still a struggle for everyone except me. They usually did a three on one with either of us.

Seek had improved her reserves and Wind magic a lot. With all her focus on the subject her Wind magic was on par with my Ice magic, and that wasn't even counting her clan trait.

Lucie for her part had improved her reserves a lot too. She could make her shields work through a whole spar now or heal pretty much every wound one of us had at the end of one. That was a real difference to before, much to my pride and her delight.

Liam on the other hand had improved a lot on everything. He reminded me of myself when I started training. He seemed especially proud of that when I told him. He can already match Trina, much to her chagrin.

His magic also improved a lot. He can put almost everyone into a tight spot with his Earth bindings and prisons. Except for Iorek and I, we can power our way through them. But if he managed to make them a bit sturdier, I would have to be really careful. Getting stuck against him was dangerous.

Then there was Leonardo. He didn't train per se but he would occasionally lend us a hand if I asked and he felt like it. And by that, I mean that he would create his golems for us to fight against. Was really good to practice battle against a number of enemies. He was treated to the same shuffle of hair as Liam every time. It seemed to annoy him to no end but he still did it so I continued.

He still hasn't opened up to anyone but me. Although I had seen him talk occasionally with Lucie and Liam. That was good, it would be pretty sad if he didn't talk to anyone while in the house. He also seemed to enjoy listening to Trina practice with her guitar, which was something both of us started doing each time she did it.

All in all, Seekvaira and I thought we had pretty good chances for the Young Devil Gathering. She still fished for information on the others and everything pointed that the only real danger was Bael. All we had pointed at him being able to match Longinus users. His seven valued pawn that we could find nothing about also worried us. And that wasn't even counting Kuisha Abaddon, magic was pretty much useless against her, and getting close to someone of that clan was a difficult affair. That peerage would be a pain to deal with.

The others we were still struggling to find anything solid. We were only working with rumors and past relationships at most. We hated having so little information, especially Seek. Information was power in the hands of someone like her. Having nothing made her feel powerless. I just hoped this year would be more fruitful in that regard.

I guessed I understood her feeling some. I felt pretty bad about not having something to specially work on. Just improving on what I had made me feel like I had hit a wall. If this was how far I could go it would be frustrating. But I had hope. I still had an idea I needed to test, but I needed a magician's soul for that. And the only one I had at the moment was the idiot. And believe me when I say that I was astounded that he still was acting like an idiot. I firmly believe he is a masochist.

Another thing that I noticed, and apparently everyone else had too, was that my eyes changed colors a little bit. It went from normal green eyes to a mint green that reminded me of the tone that my chains would shine when the light hit them. Our only guess was that I had started connecting more with my Sacred Gear. It was also our hope that it may mean I was closer to Balance Breaker. We weren't holding our breaths though.

Seekvaira's birthday had passed and it had been a quiet affair, much like her. Iorek's on the other hand had been hilarious. We somehow ended up playing a game of tag that lasted the entire morning and part of the afternoon. I had even seen _Seekvaira _and _Leonardo_ laughing like mad. That was a pretty good day. Maou bless our behemoth cub.

Little over four months had passed. And that's when Nico came with interesting information.

**[}-o-{]**

'_Master, I found a hideout of Nirlem.'_ She had said bluntly. I stopped on my tracks and my mind took a second to reboot.

'_Is Seekvaira in her study?'_ When I received an affirmation, I continued. _'Let's go, this could lead somewhere.'_

Once we were both informed of what Nico had found we had a long talk about what to do. Our group was battle ready. The only doubts resided with Lucie, but seeing some battle would help her. And having an emergency heal or two could come in handy. Everyone else could hold their own.

There were some pretty good gains we could get from this. First, I informed Seek about my plans on testing with magician souls. Second, we could find some magic books aside from what we could probably get out of the souls themselves. Third, maybe we could find some information on the organization. Forth, there was a chance that we actually found out their way of finding Sacred Gear users and use it or just some info on potential users would be useful too.

There were several pros, though most were simply probabilities. And while the cons weren't as many, they were equally serious. A lot could go wrong when going in enemy territory. But the deciding factor was, it was located in a secluded area. That only meant one thing, Iorek could come and play if needed be. That reassure both of us that this was too good an opportunity to let it pass.

With the decision made we informed everyone else. The kids were understandably nervous, this was their first real battle. I reassured them that I would keep an eye on them to make sure nothing happened. What surprised me was Leonardo.

"Can I go too?" He asked simply.

"Um, of course…" I looked at Seekvaira, we hadn't thought about this but she was quick to nod in acceptance. "Sure, just stay near Lucie and Liam. With you three working together I have nothing to worry about at all." I send them a smile that they quickly returned, some more than others obviously.

And like that we went. Soon we where standing in front of an entrance going underground covered with magic to keep it hidden that took Dovray a while to break. Once inside we still hadn't seen anyone. There were two paths to go.

"Seth, take the kids to the left. The rest of us will go the right. If something happens contact us. We will do the same." Said Seekvaira.

It had taken him a good two months but Dovray had finally made the communication devices. We used them as accessories. I had a neckless with a wolf head and a gem the same color of my eyes in its mouth. Trina had a guitar with a sapphire gem. Seek had a King piece with a pink gem. Dovray had what looked like a medallion with the Agares symbol on one side and the Demiurge's on the other. Liam had one like mine but with raccoon much to everyone's amusement, and an amber colored gem. Lucie had a pair of wings with a light blue gem in the middle. We didn't really know what to make for Leonardo and he didn't seem to have a preference so I just said to make him a wolf one like mine with a purple gem. He seemed pretty attached to me after all. Nobody objected.

So, according to orders we divided. We found a living room and a couple of halls with bedrooms. We also crossed paths with several magicians but they were dealt with pretty quickly. Liam just trapped their feet and they were finished with a swipe of my chains. The wolves were already having fun teaching manners to the souls. Bella and Poll were in their element.

That is until we reached a room that looked like a really big study. There were a lot of magicians working there. I quickly build my most powerful shield before they had a chance to attack.

"Lucie stay by the door, Leonardo, guard her with a couple of golems, send every other you have to attack together with Liam and me." They nodded and I dispelled the shield before it exploded on us.

Several Ice lance circles appeared above me while I charged. My spells didn't hit but that was not what they were meant to do. They were just meant to distract them until they were within chain range. Their weak shields and barriers couldn't stop my wolf enhanced chains. They cut through them as if they were simple paper.

That's when I heard Lucie's scream. When I turned and saw that she was ok I looked for Liam. He was standing there looking at the corpse before him. One of his attacks had been too much apparently.

'_Sirius, wrap the cub.'_ I send the flail to him and pulled him towards me. "Hey kid," I said and built a shield before us and continue talking. "You've done enough, go back to Lucie and help Leo cover her, will you?"

"But-" His eyes focused and he looked like I had just kicked his puppy.

"Don't worry, you did great." I shuffled his hair. That always seemed to relax him a little, it didn't disappoint. "First time with this is always difficult. We will talk about this later, now go." I gave him a little push in the others direction before going to deal with the magicians that were still standing.

I didn't think Liam would kill someone. Neither Seek nor me had accounted for that. We had to be more careful with that. Leave their fights to be small ones. Like leaving the ones that we had found alone to them instead and dealing with this group on my own. _'Yeah, that would have been better. I'm an idiot.'_

"We cleared this side, how's it going over there?" I asked Seekvaira.

"Done, we found the library, it was the place with the most enemies."

"We found a study of sorts. We will start sorting it out, but first I have to talk to the kids… Liam killed one of them." That was all I said.

"We are in our way over there." She said. I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. _'When did my life become so complicated… Right, from the beginning.' _I thought bitterly.

"Liam." I called him; he was standing there emotionless looking at his right hand. "Kid, come over here." I put a hand over his head and guided him to the side on the hall, away from the corpses. I had to lift a hand to stop Lucie from coming. "Liam, talk to me." I said guiding his eyes so he looked at mine.

"I… I killed him…" I saw his eyes lose focus again.

"Liam, look at me." I said causing him to do just that. "Do you see me?" He nodded. "Do I look like a bad person to you?" He shook his head, there was a part of me that felt relieved but it was not the moment nor the place. "Sit down" I sat down next to him, our backs to the wall. I put an arm around his neck and held him in a one-armed hug. "You didn't do anything wrong, you know them. They have killed who knows how many people for their Sacred Gears. And I could continue telling things like this, but you already know them." I made him look at me again. "What you need to know is that I'm going to continue being your brother." A saw a spark of light return to his eyes. "Lucie may be uncomfortable for a while, but she won't go anywhere, we are your family, and we won't go anywhere. You get that?"

Tears started forming in his eyes until he was openly sobbing. He held my chest for dear life. His head under my chin, and his tears wetting my shirt. I just sat there patting his back. When Seekvaira's group arrived, I motioned to Leo and Lucie with my head. She went over Lucie and held her in a hug. She wouldn't show it but after all that magic training they had become somewhat close.

I had to comfort Liam some more before we left to the house together with Leo, Seek and Lucie. Dovray and Trina would search the facility for everything that could be useful and we would sort it out later.

I went outside with Liam and we both sat there petting Iorek for a while. I was showing him my personal therapy methods from when I started dealing with death. After he had calmed down enough, we went inside again. The girls were reading something. I had heard that was Seek's method, she said it helped keep her head away from things. It looked like it was working for Lucie too. Maybe they were more alike than I thought.

Leonardo was also doing some light reading. That church training seemed to have trained him to deal with this apparently. He didn't look affected at all.

Together with Liam we cooked some simple things for everyone. After eating I played a quick game of chess with him. And between things like that we spent the rest of the day. When night came Lucie went to bed with Seek and Liam with me. Maybe I couldn't prevent them but I would sure as hell comfort him if he had any nightmares. More than once had I woken up sweating like I had been running with Iorek just seconds ago. My brother would not suffer that alone.

**[}-o-{]**

A week had passed since then and the kids had slowly come onto themselves again, at least a bit. You were never the same after dealing with death after all. Lucie had started to smile again. And Liam no longer avoided eye contact with everyone but me. He even smiled sometimes when he was with me or Lucie.

They were getting there. I couldn't be prouder of my brother and sister. They hadn't dealt with the dark side of the supernatural world until now. But they were dealing with it pretty well. They were doing better than I had done. Telling them that seemed to improve their states quite a bit.

Seekvaira and I wouldn't leave them alone for anything during this time. Trina practiced with her guitar more often, I thanked her quietly every time. Dovray always handed us some tea or snacks every time he had some free time.

One time surprisingly I had seen Leo trembling, like he was one push away from crying his eyes out. I had put a hand on his head. That seemed to bring him out of whatever he had been thinking. After that I pitted him against Liam on a chess board.

From there I took both of them under my wings. Maybe Leo had an easier time, maybe there was something else that bothered him. But I didn't care, I wouldn't have him suffering alone no matter the reason. So, we went over every coping mechanism of mine over and over again. It was like taking a vacation for a week. At the end of it we all looked even more relaxed than before the raid.

Maybe it would be good to set apart some time to rest once in a while. I talked that with Seekvaira, she seemed to agree.

After the week we still got the kids to continue relaxing while doing some light work. We wanted them to just relax for a week more at least but they wouldn't stay still. So, while they worked a bit with Dovray and Trina, Seek and I looked over what we got from the hideout.

Sadly, we didn't find their way to find Sacred Gear users nor any user they were targeting at the moment. What we did find was a lot of information on magic and a lot of notebooks with research done by them. That together with what I was getting from the souls would add quite a bit to our library. The wolves had had a lot of fun breaking the stubborn ones. Fortunately, none of them were like the masochist.

I was also pretty happy, I finally had magician souls to try my little experiment.

And then there was this:

'_Making animated constructs with my Earth magic is proving to be challenging.'_ I read from one of the notebooks. _'I suppose it makes sense; Getting it to move on its own without a true mind would be complicated. The most I have achieved is some glorified robots, following simple orders, or doing very basic tasks. But they can't think on their own, and what little they do is too stiff to actually be useful. I theorize that getting a construct to actually be _alive_ would take the work of a circle, arithmancy and raw power that is simply not available. Sadly, free will is out of my reach.'_

I had gone over those lines so many times I had lost count. It had been a couple of days. I couldn't keep that out of my head. I had the means, I didn't only have minds, I had souls, souls that _had_ free will. And I could theoretically put them in Ice sculptures made of my magic. After all, they used my magic without problem when they coated the chains.

I would have to test this. I was trembling in excitement. I had things to work on. And my Sacred Gear was proving to be awesome once again. If people didn't rise my Sacred Gear to at the very least to mid-tier after they saw me using the techniques I was working on, then I would have to start kicking some godly asses for them to jump it to Longinus tier.

I was pretty close to laughing like a mad scientist. But I refrained myself and dived in the notebook's information about the constructs the guy had used. Adapting them to my Ice magic. Improving them.

And so, I started my projects. Secret from anyone except Seekvaira. I needed her to know just in case. We didn't know when something could happen. And she would need all the information I could give her to plan better. She was thrilled by the prospect, and honestly who could blame her. I was more than thrilled.

**[}-o-{]**

Project medium had been a resounding success. I had been grinning like mad for an entire day. Sadly, it was limited and had a pretty bad drawback. But it was still awesome.

Project sculpture on the other hand was… taking time. The magician hadn't worked a lot on the constructs, deciding that he could work on that once he could get the AI to work. Which he never did so the circles remained at the very basics. And on top of that I had to adapt them to the wolves, which were the souls I would be using. I didn't trust human souls to be outside the Sacred Gear.

So, I decided it was better to just start from the beginning. I wouldn't see success or failure until I reached an acceptable level on the constructs to be able to tie the soul correctly. That was a shame, because it meant that all the time I was using could be a waste in the end. But Seekvaira encouraged me, telling me that the chance was worth a little gambling. Which I ended up agreeing with.

Hopefully we would have an answer before the Gathering.


	11. Walk On Water

**Thanks to GGPD, Raidentensho and you too random guest.**

**Sorry for the delay. I haven't been happy with my writing, especially my last few chapters. So, with that I took some time to check it over a couple of times more than normal and think them over a bit more. **

**Sadly, I can't seem to get them to be as good as I wanted. I hope the chapters are at least decent enough to read.**

**As for Romance… I don't actually know. I'll be honest, I am a socially awkward person, and I suck at writing dialogues in general. So, any type of romance I write is going to be shit. But I'll see what I come up with and if you insist.**

**If it **_**does**_** happen, then it will definitely have SethxSeek. Don't get me wrong, I like harems as much as the next guy, but I hate badly written harems. I don't know if I could do a decent harem fic.**

**If you would leave your thoughts on all this I would definitely appreciate it.**

**Bonus: If someone can guess what 'Project Free Wind' I will post another chapter tomorrow.**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Highschool DxD, neither do I own any of the multiple resources that I will use for the story in the form of (but not limited to) references.

**Nilrem Arc – Walk On Water**

I have to start with this. Project sculpture is possible.

I have been working like a mad man on those constructs. I can already say that if I have it battle ready for the Gathering then I will be surprised. The project needs much more work than we anticipated. And I was not being positive when I theorized how long it would take.

First step was to make the sculptures correctly according to the bodies the wolf souls are inherently connected to. And let me tell you, that in and on itself is going to be a pain. The most I could get so far was something to confirm the possibility of the project. And finally, after two months I got it to move, indicating that, indeed, it was possible.

But that takes us to the second step, energy. Because, like when I give them power over my chains, the wolves consume a lot of power when I try to get them to control the constructs. And when I say a lot, I mean eighty percent of my reserves just for a minute.

However, this didn't make me give up. The possibilities were too good for me to do that. I spent every minute that was not in physical training working on this project. This is simply amazing.

The great thing about this is that we could have more comrades in battle. I don't have to do anything besides creating the construct, connecting the soul and providing power to maintain the connection. Everything else is done by the soul itself. And I also get to have the pack be outside from time to time, they will love it.

I have also started a side project inside the sculpture project, Free Wind. And let me just say, that one only made me more eager to finish this.

Another thing that has been keeping my spirits up is that, as a result of project medium being a success, I am officially the strongest member of the peerage. And not only that, I can fight everyone teaming up against me. Well, everyone but Iorek, I can only beat him when on a one on one.

To say that they were shocked when I used it for the first time would be an understatement. It put the first time I used the wolves to control the chains to shame. And talking about that I think the female wolves were a bit jealous. However, this is not to say that everyone else has been doing nothing. Seekvaira's Wind magic has improved a lot. Dovray's aim with his knives is almost perfect, I think he is looking for something else to add to his arsenal.

Trina has improved the time she can speed her recovery with Senjutsu and has started trying to detect other life forces. Obviously, this is done while being alone and in the middle of the forest as to avoid as much as possible the exposition to malice and ill will.

Liam is progressing nicely; he has been putting a lot of effort in his training. However, as happy and proud as his improvement made me it still worried me that he would end up like me after my first encounter with death. It wasn't anything like that though.

When I told Lucie about my concerns, she told me that Liam wanted to be stronger. That he wanted to be able to deal with his battles without my help. And that he wanted to stand side by side with his brother. Needless to say, I was moved. I made time to spar with him more often, to teach him more about circle design, even for our free time.

Lucie for her part was doing really well. Her reserves were increasing steadily, now she could user her gear to patch someone up completely after a spar. Obviously, spar wounds weren't so taxing as real battle ones but it was amazing progress all the same. And I made sure to tell her exactly that, much to her delight.

Iorek had started training seriously after I started beating him. There we found out he was a sore loser; he wouldn't let me pet him after the spar. Nico for her part was starting to show a definite figure more often, soon it would be a permanent thing, and after that came the solid form.

So, like I said, two months passed.

**[}-o-{]**

"Well, at least we are not the only ones having shit to deal with." I told Seek, she seemed annoyed by my vocabulary but otherwise nodded.

"She also seems to have gained some new peerage members." She continued telling me the new information she got on the Gremory heiress. "One of them seems to have been an ex-holy maiden, she was known for her healing powers. If I had to guess then she either has a Healing affinity or a healer Sacred Gear." _'Or both.'_ I added in my mind, and I knew she thought it too.

"So, we know she has a Thunder magic user, a swordsman, a sealed bishop, a healer, a Nekoshou and an unknown one." I summarized. There was more than likely a lot more to those people than we knew. But what we did already didn't look good at all.

The Thunder magic user, the Priestess of Thunder as some called her, was Gremory's Queen. I was pretty confident against her, however we did have some thoughts that were more than a little unnerving, so I reserved my opinion.

Then the swordsman, we didn't know anything about him. Not even how many pieces he took, much less if he had a Sacred Gear or something like that. Then was the Nekoshou, we did know she only took one Rook, so there was that. But her sister's information didn't sound promising.

The sealed bishop we knew was a mutated one, don't ask me how Seekvaira knew that. He was apparently too powerful for the heiress to control, so it was decided he would be sealed. If we were lucky, he wouldn't me released for the Gathering.

Then came the new ones, the nun was probably a bishop, just like Lucie. And we hoped that her past as a nun and holy maiden would make her like Lucie in regard to battles too. If she knew light spells and could use them against us then that would be dangerous.

And then was the one that was giving us headaches. The unknown member. The pain was that we knew absolutely nothing. He could be a simple Pawn, or a Rook, or even an eight-pieces Pawn. That was bad, because we couldn't plan anything against someone like that.

That was the updated information we had on the Gremory Peerage. The Bael Peerage info hadn't changed much but we already had a pretty detailed file, not to say it was calming information. As for the Glasya-Labolas's one… everything confirmed that he was the last of our concerns.

"At least we have the comfort of Glasya-Labolas and Sitri to make up for Gremory and Bael." I said.

"I wouldn't underestimate Sona; she is a great strategist after all." Was Seek's answer.

"So are you, and she doesn't seem to have a lot of power in her peerage, but we do, so she has brains, but we have brains and brawn. I would say we have pretty good chances." I said. She seemed nervous to say something. I looked away from the board to lock eyes with her.

"You think so?"

"I do, if I had to make a bet I would say our only real problem is Bael. Gremory can be a problem but that is mostly because of unknown factors. The others however, they don't worry me at all. I trust our peerage, and I trust your plans. So, yes, I think we have really good chances to get you out of your situation. Even if we can't beat Bael we should be able to prove your power." I said confidently. That was a summary of my thoughts on the Gathering so far.

"Thank you." Her voice was really low, and she was looking down at the board with her hair hiding her face.

"No need to thank me. I'm just saying what I think." I reassured her with a smile on my face. "Moreover, I _am_ your Queen after all, aren't I? I got your back. We have almost a year to prepare more information and train more. It's not as it was a year ago, it's not you, Dovray and Iorek alone. There's no need to be desperate. Just relax and watch us deal with them. I doubt you will even need to move." I told her as confidently as I could. It wasn't difficult, I trusted our peerage.

She just nodded and continued playing. She never looked up after that and when we finished, I left squeezing her shoulder on my way out.

Once outside my face turned serious.

"Dovray." I found him on the kitchen. He looked up from what he was preparing and straightened after seeing my face. "Do you have a moment?"

He nodded and cleaned his hands. "Of course, Seth. What do you need?"

"A promise." I paused and locked eyes with him. "I don't know what can happen on the future. So, I need you to be ready to take my place." He looked at me confused.

"What do you-"

"Walburga." He paused. Then I could see him think with a frown in his face. I just waited.

"I will, but it isn't as simple as you make it sound." He said finally.

"I know… I know." I sighed. "But the team can't go down with me. I would never forgive myself." I left, the weight in my shoulders didn't seem lighter than before.

Unknown to me, there were quite a few people that heard us.

**[}-o-{]**

It was a month after that. Another attack happened.

We went with the plan. Everyone would go, except from Leo, Iorek and me. If they encountered Walburga they would escape as soon as they saw her. They would keep their guards up for any other unexpected thing. We would keep contact just in case they couldn't get out and Iorek and I were needed.

As for us, the ones at the house. We just seated outside, I was petting Iorek and playing a chess game with Leo.

That didn't last.

I felt the bracelet of black leather and silver that Dovray had made for me warm up. It would tell me if someone or something broke into the forest.

"Go inside Leo." I told him simple. He hesitated a little before going. "Iorek, hide yourself. If I am in trouble or if I call you then come. But I want you to be my secret weapon." He was a lot more reluctant than Leo but ultimately did as told.

A minute later appeared the one that sometimes was on my nightmares. Gothic clothes, short platinum hair and lavender eyes, purple flames already over her hands.

"Why hello crazy bitch, long time no see." I told her.

"Chained bat? You are alive, color me surprised! But that's better, I will be able to burn you again!" She sounded positively delighted at the idea. When her laughter reached my ears, a shiver went down my spine. I clenched the chains in my hands.

'_It's time.'_ I told the pack. I could feel their eagerness to destroy our enemy. I swung my chains.

"Ah ah ah little bat, you won't get away that easily!" I didn't stop, I kept swinging my chains without stopping. Soon the battle transformed into a dance of fire and chains. "Can you stay still for a moment? I'm trying to burn you!"

"Can you stay still for a moment? I'm trying to chain you!" I answered. The battle was going nowhere. I had to step up my game. _'Laura, drown her.'_ _'Roger that, boss.'_

That's when I threw the lantern at Walburga. She dodged it by jumping, but stopped frozen in shock at what happened. The lantern stopped midair right next to her. And then a Blue circle appeared on the lantern.

"Your magic doesn't work, little bat!"

"Then it's good it isn't mine, isn't it?" I saw her eyes widen before a sphere of water engulfed and imprisoned her. She didn't seem to even think before a ball of fire surrounded her. Water battled with the holy fire. _'Well, it's definitely better than Ice.'_ I heard a huff inside my head. _'Amazing job, Laura.'_ I swung the scythe towards Walburga while silently ordering Laura to stop.

The cursed chain, as I started calling it wrapped around her left leg while I swung the flail to trap her completely. I had her; I had the crazy bitch. I started laughing, and if someone had seen my face at that moment, they would have seen a savage look with a crazed smile. But most importantly, my eyes glowing mint green.

"Iorek, take care of her!" A mix between a bark and a roar answered me. The baby behemoth charged at Walburga from where he was hidden in the forest. I saw her face pale for a moment at the sight of Iorek. I couldn't fault her for that. Gone was the cute puppy and to replace him was the feral beast that brought fear just by hearing its name. He could be weaker and smaller than normal. But he was a behemoth. And I could see it at that moment. The wrath of a behemoth.

Just a second was all it took for Iorek to run out of the forest and stab the holy fire user with his horn. I could see that he was going to destroy her.

"Iorek, stop!" He froze, and turned to me. I could practically feel his incredulity. "I have a better plan for her, don't worry buddy." I spun the scythe drawing circles in the air. Iorek took a step back. _'Arcturus.'_ I didn't need a wolf enhanced attack to hit her, she was already out, spitting blood and trying to produce fire. But this time it wasn't for aim, it was to share our retribution. I swung the scythe. And Walburga was no more.

I felt the wolves rejoice at finally being able to take their revenge. _'Everyone, you did an amazing job.'_ Several barks and a _'You're welcome, boss.'_

I don't think I need to explain that Laura was a soul I got in our raid to the Nilrem hideout. As it seems, she had really bad luck. She was part of Hexennacht some time ago. The group is known for actively targeting people from all factions. Some time ago they were viewed as a sort of magical police. They attacked every person that they found enough evidence was bad.

That didn't last long though. Soon they started needing less proof until they developed into a full-on terrorist group. Sadly, their past reputation still helps them recruit some people naïve enough. That's were Laura enters the picture.

She was recruited under the belief that she was joining a group for justice. And by the time she noticed the true nature of the group she was so far in that she couldn't get out. In another strike of bad luck, she followed Walburga out of the group into Nirlem, just to notice that she was back onto the pan.

And so, she ended up dying by my hand. After hearing that, I _did_ feel bad. But what could I do? At that point the only thing I could do was offer her a place in the mindscape or to just pass on. She decided to stay for a while and see how it was. She was actually good company to have while meditating and we got along really well while she helped add to the library books.

It was something strange to talk with the soul of someone I killed in such good terms. She was the only one though, some of the others helped and not many lasted long in denial, but none of them was even close to be as friendly as Laura. All of them chose to pass on too. That's why Laura was the only one to join the medium project. I had to banish the masochist by the way, he was too annoying even for the wolves.

Now, as for what the medium project _is_, it's a way I found to have magician souls cast spells using my magic. The point of this is that they still have their affinities, so now I can cast magic of two affinities. As to why just two and not more, that's one of the drawbacks of this.

The only way I had found to achieve this was to link a soul to the lantern. Also, now it _does_ look like a lantern. After the linking a small green fire lit up inside it. But I digress, the point is that I can only link one soul to the lantern at a time. It also must be said that it takes a lot out of me to link them, so it must be done in advance.

It was a blessing of Maou himself that Laura was as friendly as she was, because she had a Water affinity. And that was exactly what I needed to deal with Walburga. Granted I could have made it work with some other affinities too, but water was definitely the best option that I knew of.

"Do you need help, Seek? I just dealt with Walburga." I asked through the wolf neckless while going inside to tell Leo that everything was safe.

"I think we can deal with this by ourselves, but I'll call you if something happens." Was her answer.

I guessed she wanted the others to fight without me there. It was a good idea I supposed. We couldn't always fight together, much less in Rating Games where we would have to deal with objectives and strategies. It was also good that I could go any second if something happened, so I could stay somewhat calm.

"Everything is ok, Leo. No threats anymore." I called outside of his door.

"How do I know it's you?" I smirked. We had talked about this.

"It's impolite to ignore someone when they are talking to you. Especially when they are giving you a place to stay and keeping you safe. Don't you think?" I said, and the door opened. I smiled at him and he returned it with a small one. "We'll have to start a new game."

**[}-o-{]**

A while later came Seeks group pretty roughed up but overall, they looked well. I sighed in relief.

"Good to see everything went well. Now, tell me everything, how did my little bro and little sis do?" I said putting a hand over Liam and Lucie's heads. Both blushed in embarrassment.

"Before that, Seth, I need you to do something." Said Seek. I turned to her with a raised eyebrow and then I noticed that there was a guy with green hair and black eyes standing there behind everyone. "This is Alan Hawkwood, the Sacred Gear user that was attacked. I told him about our group and he said he wanted to join."

"…" I stared at her, then at the guy.

"I said I would join if one of you could beat me." Clarified Alan. I bursted out laughing.

"Seek, I know I said that you were the brains but that doesn't mean new recruits don't need to have them too." I told her. The guy looked offended.

"You say that like you would be able to beat me, when you weren't even there during th-" I interrupted him by shooting an ice arrow that graced his cheek and then I just stared at him.

"Sorry for not being there to save your sorry ass but I was busy killing a Longinus user, if you even know what that is." His eyes opened up comically. _'I guess he knows.'_ Then his expression turned to rage. The others looked pleasantly surprised.

"What did you do to Leonardo you piece of-" He was interrupted again.

"Alan?" Leonardo's voice sounded behind me.

"Leonardo? But he said?"

"I dealt with Walburga, Incinerate Anthem." I explained to him. He turned to stare at me with eyes wider than before. Then I turned to Leo, "You know this guy?" He nodded slowly.

"He was in the church, didn't agree much with them either, so you left too?"

"Yes, I've been looking for you while wandering around. I didn't know you joined the Devils."

"I didn't." He said. "I'm just staying here; this place is safe and they offered." I nodded. And put a hand over Leo's head much to his chagrin.

"So, about that fight, you still want it? I'm sure Iorek didn't get enough fun before." I said with a savage grin. He shook his head hurriedly.

"No, it's ok. You are strong, you have Leonardo's trust and you saved me. I think that's enough." My grin lost its savage side and I extended a hand for him to shake.

"Welcome to the team." He shook it with a nod.

**[}-o-{]**

The next week was one full of surprises. First was Alan, he was worth three pieces. Now, that on itself isn't surprising. What was surprising was that he only had a low-tier Sacred Gear, Exalted Blade. A gear that let the user create a sword of, in his case as a reincarnated devil, demonic energy. It was a basic equipment gear, the only different thing the sword had with a normal one was that it increased its weight, sharpness and durability by the amount of energy put in it.

So, there he was a low-tier Sacred Gear user without much skill and low reserves of energy. We were puzzled as to why he would cost so much, for Seek at this point that was a sure one Pawn. That was before Seek thought of something and we tested it. Alan was a natural holy weapon user. So, we gave him Taming Sari and Seek reincarnated him as her very first Knight.

After that came the second surprise. I almost had a heart attack. When I entered my mindscape, I found something that shocked me. A giant purple flame in the sky of my mindscape, Incinerate Anthem. I practically stormed into Seek's study to tell her. But then came a disappointing surprise. I couldn't use it.

Seems like my case interested the scientific Maou, Ajuka Beelzebub. He came by the house himself to take a look and ask about details. To say we were shocked by having a Maou visit would be an understatement.

In the end he concluded that it was probably something related with the ability of Incinerate Anthem to transfer between users at will and my Sacred Gear's ability to store souls. He also concluded that I couldn't use the Longinus because I was not _actually_ it's user, it was just 'tagging along' on its own free will. He said it was probably to look for another person to chose as its user.

Now, if that's not disappointing then nothing is.

However, the other abilities I had discovered also interested the scientist a lot. He seemed especially interested in my ability to connect souls to constructs. He even offered to help me develop my circles to speed up the process. Seekvaira and I were baffled. This guy was a relative of one of the heirs that was going to be at the Gathering, Diodora Astaroth. And he was going to help me be stronger. But he was a Maou so I would be stupid saying no to that offer.

So, now I could safely say that my pack would kick some ass during those Rating Games. I was now working in getting to have two simultaneous constructs by that time. That's not to say I already had it down to use. But Lord Beelzebub's help had speed up the process so much that it would only take a month or two to start using them in spars. His only condition was for me to show him that and project Free Wind in the Rating Games. I readily accepted.

So that was my plan, get the circle to work properly and my reserves to use the constructs to be useful in battle, finish Free Wind and from then on it was just improvements. To say I was happy didn't even begin to cover it. It also helped that I got some payback on Walburga. She would be hard to get cooperative but I didn't have any hurry. All the better. And the pack was definitely enjoying themselves.

All was good.


	12. The Reason

**Thank you GGPD, robocoaster, faithful despair, mnorsyafiq92 and HaMiroKar420 for the reviews.**

**First, I want to thank the opinions I got about romance in the story. I will see what comes to my mind but I have a good idea of what will happen.**

**Second, about the disappointment with Walburga's battle. I have two reasons for the battle to be so quick. One of them is that I'm new to writing and it gets kind of hard to write battles, for me at least. After finishing some future chapters I think I'm improving, maybe, just a little bit. Another reason is that it was a poor match up to get an epic battle in my opinion.**

**The battle is basically one in which the first to hit the other wins. If Walburga gets Seth with her flames he is as good as dead. If Seth gets her, he stuns locks her and Iorek does the finisher. There was just not much I could do. Especially considering that Walburga renders Seth's magic useless.**

**Despite everything, I have to apologize, there's probably a lot I could have done better in that battle. I'm sorry, I'm working in improving that side of my writing. Hopefully I won't disappoint as much in the future.**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Highschool DxD, neither do I own any of the multiple resources that I will use for the story in the form of (but not limited to) references.

**Young Devil Gathering Arc – The Reason**

"Seek… Please tell me this is a joke." I pleaded her. This was so ridiculous that it had to be a joke.

"No, it isn't, but he certainly is a joke." I could only nod.

It had been a month since we defeated Walburga and Seek had just received a video with the Rias Gremory vs Raiser Phenex Rating Game, we had also gotten the video of the Boosted Gear user vs said Phenex. It was hilarious in a way. This generation Red Dragon Emperor was an idiot.

A power idiot, but an idiot in the end, and he was also a pervert, and not even a closet one at that. I felt my blood boil, this idiot had gotten a Longinus, was God crazy?

At the end of the day Seek and I agreed in something, our chances were pretty good against this peerage. The Priestess of Thunder was as we expected her to be, no surprise there and the Sword Birth user could be troublesome.

But the others? Oh boy, they would be a piece of cake.

The power idiot was every woman's counter, but I could easily destroy him. The nun was ironically a blessing for us, she not only seemed to refuse to battle, but all she seemed good at was using her gear (and that was just speculation as she hadn't used it). Lucie was ten times better than that girl; I could see her beam like a second sun on the corner of my eye when I said that.

But the one that worried us had been the Nekoshou, and she didn't even use Senjutsu! I could only laugh at that and Seekvaira had a relieved look in her face. Indeed, Bael was our only worry for the Rating Games. I just needed to do something first.

"Seekvaira," I said in a serious tone, everyone turned to me as I looked at her. "what's your goal?" I said plainly.

"You know my goal Seth, getting out of-"

"What will you do when we achieve it." She didn't seem to miss that I said 'when' and not 'if', because she sat straighter.

"I haven't thought a lot about the future after that until now, I just… want to be free." She said with much more emotion than everyone was used to hear in her voice. Everyone was looking between us as if we were playing tennis.

"You heard her, didn't you guys?" I asked everyone while my gaze remained in my King. Everyone locked their eyes on mine. "Our King has a goal, as her peerage it is our duty to help her achieve it. We will make Seekvaira Agares the freest woman in the world, and then, we will stand beside her, the freest people in the world." I finished.

We had to have a common goal; without that we would lose our determination. That Seekvaira's goal was so easy to relate to was perfect. I turned to look at them, every person in the room gave me a resolute nod when I looked eyes with the. I nodded at them; this peerage was incredible.

**[}-o-{]**

That day changed the peerage more than I thought it would. Everyone seemed much more determined to get stronger. And they threw themselves at training like madmen and women.

The new guy, Alan, wasn't as strong as Liam at first, he was pretty close though. However, he had a great work ethic, he seemed to live to train. Then I understood why he wanted to battle me to join, he respected strength.

His magic talent was shit, no other way to say it. It baffled me really, it wasn't even a problem of him having low reserves, which he had, but even if he didn't, he seemed unable to cast a spell to save his life. But he more than made up for that with his strength as a swordsman. Moreover, he was working in using his Sacred Gear sword and Taming Sari at the same time. And although he couldn't use his reserves to cast spells what he _could_ do was make his sword stronger and use the holy weapon's ability.

Trina's training was going nice. Her Sacred Gear sonar range and overall efficiency had increased a lot. She had finally decided to swap her staff for a spear. And her Senjutsu was coming along pretty well, she could detect living beings when she was in her meditative state and was steadily increasing her range with that too. Also, her recovery with it had improved so much that we no longer had Lucie heal her, instead she secluded herself to the forest for half an hour after each spar to recover herself.

And talking about Lucie, her reserves where no longer a problem. She could heal everyone after a spar session, she still ended pretty winded but it was great progress. Her shields were great too, she could stop wolf enhanced chains, and _that_ was saying something. Liam for his part was becoming a real fighter, he could give Dovray problems now in one on one battles when he didn't use his new tricks.

As for our buttler. He had found yet another way to increase his danger level in battle. He made specialized combo knives. For example, he could trap you in a prison by shooting four knives and drawing a square with them with you in the center. Of course, he already had one knife prison arrays but using more made them that much more powerful. He was a pain to deal with now because even dodging was dangerous.

Seekvaira's magic had improved a lot. Her spells weren't the most dangerous, but that wasn't what she used them for. Her strategy was to use her wind spells to make fighting uncomfortable, which went really well with her supportive role.

Overall these people would have been a problem for the past me. But the me at that moment was awesome. I had gotten the constructs to work, needless to say that everyone was out of it for a flat minute when I summoned an Ice Sirius by my side in a spar session.

He was twice as big as when he was a real wolf, and the ice took a black color as soon as I linked the soul. That was a neat effect, I'll admit. There I also found out the capabilities of my constructs so far. A wolf was on the level of Trina.

Spars were amazing but maintaining a wolf for a complete one left me dead on my feet. It needed a lot of magic to move, to prevent it from breaking, it needed a lot to even _exist_. So, I had a lot of work to do to make the circles more efficient and my reserves larger. I rotated the wolves after every spar, they loved to be set free even if it was for an hour or so.

But for the moment I had something to work on that required my full attention, project Free Wind. That project had become a lot more complex than I had thought. In a way it made sense, but it still was a pain. I would make it work though. It would be amazing once it was finished.

Like that months passed. Nilrem seemed to have banished. Seek and I theorized that the attack in their hideout and Walburga's defeat had made them leave her territory. That idea had a lot of merit but we kept our guards up just in case.

She also continued to pry information on the other heirs. The gathering was less than a year from then and we had to be ready. As the months passed the information came.

It was a pretty much a confirmed thing that Diodora Astaroth's peerage was made of former church members, that was a dangerous thing, nobody knew the Devil's weaknesses as well as the church. We would have to look out for those guys.

Sona Sitri's peerage on the other hand didn't seem like much. Our only worries were the complete lack of information about some members, so there was a chance they could be like us. What we knew was that a former member of an exorcist clan that was cursed and reincarnated to avoid the curse. She was from the Meguri clan, a clan known from their sword techniques, so she was most probably a Knight.

The other worry of that peerage that we knew of was her Queen. An ex-member of the Shinra clan that was shunned due to an artifact that attracted evil spirits to her. We had already worked up that she had a Sacred Gear, most likely Mirror Alice if we had to bet. It also pointed out that she may be able to wield a weapon, that made her the only Queen I knew of the heirs that was probably an allrounder like me.

I could only price Seekvaira's contacts for this information. She could get the names of everyone on the others peerages. She also said that they could get ours too. But I wasn't worried. First, she said that the only ones likely to do that were Sitri and maybe Bael.

Second was that there was nothing they could get out of our names. We were mostly random Sacred Gear users. We didn't come from known families or clans. The only one they could maybe get something about was Alan. Trina, Liam, Lucie and I were all unknowns. They were in for a surprise if they thought we were going to be some nobodies.

Four months had passed with all these and we received another unpleasant surprise by the Gremory peerage.

"An ex-Excalibur wielder, what kind of luck does this girl have?" It really bothered me. The Gremory heir seemed to have a knack for getting powerhouses in her peerage.

"At least there's the 'ex' part, the most Rias could get her is a low-tier holy weapon." Said Seekvaira.

"Why do I have the feel that you are wrong…"

Another three months passed and my feeling was proven wrong.

"I get it, they did it to appease the Red Dragon Emperor and give something to the Devil faction… but this doesn't make it any less annoying. At least it's a dragon-slaying sword. We don't have dragons in the peerage." I said, annoyance dripping from my voice.

"…" Seek just nodded, no even trying to calm me down. She looked just as annoyed.

"I mean, that's a high-tier holy weapon for Maou's sake. Was Heaven that desperate for peace? Giving Ascalon away like that?"

I wanted to punch things so bad that day. And punch I did; the whole peerage suffered my bad mood that day during the spar session. They were really happy there weren't more surprises after that.

**[}-o-{]**

The good thing is that over all that time I achieved a lot of things. Project Free Wind was completed, that had me happy for over a week when it happened. I could already summon two wolves and I didn't even end up dead on my feet afterwards, just really winded.

Alan was becoming a beast, he could stall a battle against two wolves by himself. Liam wasn't far behind that, and his magic had advanced to the point that I could no longer escape it by power alone unless I put some serious effort. Lucie's shields were an amazing thing, and her stamina had increased a lot. Trina could already detect things outside of meditative state but her range was shit if she did it like that.

Dovray sadly hadn't found anything new he could work with to improve his battles. So, he had focused on his normal traps again, they would be really useful on the Rating Games.

Seekvaira was already scheming what to do against the opponents that we knew enough information about. She had also returned to train her clan trait again; she had left it on a side while improving her magic. Not to say that she didn't use it, just focused on other things. But we definitely didn't want it to rust so she had been using it on the spars.

And then there was our newest member.

A little over a week after we heard of the holy wielder of the Gremory group every alarm we had around the house went off. We had rushed outside all of use battle ready. But what we found made us blink in surprise.

A magician, she was battered up and her clothes were a mess. She had been unconscious, so, after a brief talk with Seek we decided to take her to the house. At worst she would be another soul in my mindscape. She didn't seem to be a danger and we doubted that Nilrem would throw another Longinus at us, much less one in this state.

As we found out, she actually _was_ a member of Nilrem, ex-member to be exact. She had become one of their targets when she awakened a Sacred Gear, Twice Critical. Apparently, it didn't matter even if you were part of the group, they would take it out of you anyway.

So, she had run away to us, the bane of Nilrem. It made sense to some extent. She said that she would join the peerage as long as we promised to keep her safe. She had sounded desperate. We did promise her that, but first we thought of something.

We spent the next week looking up information on the oath that all Nilrem members swore. We found that we could get around it with the new girl. She didn't like the idea one bit but accepted in the end. We had her break the oath and as it was going to kill her Seekvaira reincarnated her as a Pawn.

We didn't exactly get much information out of her. She didn't know how they found the users. What she did know was that they had indeed left our territory. They had lost so much to us that it was no longer worth the risk.

That's the story about how we got a Lightning magician in our group, Brittney Karbowski. She had a small body for her age, eighteen, brown hair and eyes. She chose her communication device to be a lightning bolt with a brown gem in the middle.

She had adapted to our group better than we expected. She said that we were friendlier than Nilrem. Considering that we were pretty much a group of outcasts and people socially awkward, I almost pitied Nilrem members.

Her Lightning magic was pretty good and you had to be on the look out for an enhanced attack if she decided to suddenly use her Sacred Gear.

Seek and I couldn't help but grin at each other each time we saw the group train. The peerage was powerful. We were almost eager to start the Rating Games, at the very least we were sure to destroy previous expectations.

And so, the day came. We were going to the underworld. Time to impress some people.

**[}-o-{]**

I had already read about the Underworld being really similar to the Earth, but seeing it was another experience altogether. If it weren't for the purple sky I would have asked if something was wrong with the transportation circle.

Then there was the second surprise, Seek's house. Oh my Maou, that thing was so big I was afraid the young ones would get lost, as simple as that.

"It's good to see you again, Seekvaira." Came the greeting from a tall black-haired man. Seeing as he called her by her name, I guessed he was her father. That meant that the woman that looked like a just slightly older Seek was her mother. Man, guessing ages is so much more difficult with Devil, for all I knew they could be her grandparents too.

"It's good to be back, father." So, I was right.

"We welcome your peerage too, seems like you have been working hard on it."

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Lord Agares. I'm Seth, Seekvaira's Queen." I said politely while bowing. "I have heard great things about you." Mostly that the man could crush Seek in chess. I couldn't help but respect the man for that. After two years I could safely say that I had improved a lot, I was giving Seekvaira problems now. But I still had never won.

"I could say the same about you, young man. I'll admit I was worried about the future of my daughter after she told me about her new Queen." Certainly, choosing a random person to be her Queen was still Seek's most dangerous gamble to date. "But after all this time I think we can say that she hit a jackpot."

"I wouldn't go that far, but I hope I am and will continue doing a good job showing the power of House Agares." I said. Seek and her mother seemed to be talking low voiced while this was going on. The peerage together with Leo seemed to be fidgeting. The man was measuring me. I was the Queen of her daughter, actually I was waiting for-

And then the pressure hit me. This is what I had been expecting. Test of strength. He locked eyes with me and freed his killer intent. It was overwhelming, it really was. But I had faced holy fire twice. I had come back from the doors of death twice. This man could be the father of Seekvaira. But the only one that could impose to me was Seek. We were aiming to be the freest after all.

"Indeed, you are doing a really good job as it seems." He said and the pressure vanished, a smile on his face. I let out a breath I hadn't noticed I had been holding. "The only test that remains is a game of chess but that can wait until after I have some father and daughter time." He said jovially. I blinked, that tone was not something I expected from a relative of Seekvaira. I looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

"Father, would it kill you to control yourself for a day at least?" The right side of my lips quirked up.

"But it has been so long since I last saw you." He sounded like a child that had missed his mother. I had a grin on my face, a savage one.

"So, all those drills on manners were for this Seekvaira?" I asked her and I could see beads of sweat forming on her brow. I was going to have fun during the next spar.

"That's good for first impressions and all, dear. But please, feel free to act as you wish. We still hope you make use of those drills while in a public setting though." I just nodded at Seek's mother. That was a given.

"Pleasure to meet you too, Lady Agares." I bowed again.

"And you too. Seekvaira here has told us some pretty impressive stories about you. I'm eager to confirm them."

"Then I hope that I live up to those stories."

"You will surpass them." Came Seek's voice from the side. Her parents raised an eyebrow at her. "They don't know about the wolves yet."

"The ones he uses to control the chains? You told us about that a long time ago." My savage grin returned full force.

"Lord and Lady Agares, how would you like to witness the power of your daughter's peerage." I told them, the man returned my grin and the woman smiled exasperatedly at us. I could hear her voice saying 'Men.' in my head. Seekvaira had the same look.

After that we went to a clearing behind the monster of a manor that was used for training. There I had a spar against everyone except Iorek and Seekvaira. We didn't hold anything back. I would say it was a war but considering it was a six on one I don't think it's appropriate.

After Dovray finally fell to the floor we were done. I turned to see our audience. Lady Agares looked at the verge of tears and had a big smile on her face. Lord Agares seemed to loom a few years younger than before.

I understood. They could see it now; their daughter would escape her situation. There was no way this peerage would rank anywhere near last place.

"Thank you for showing us this, young man. My wife and I needed to see it." Beside him, Seek's mother nodded, I got the impression that she wanted to hug me. She hugged Seek instead, whispering how relieved she was for her daughter.

"No need to thank me, sir. And you haven't even seen how much Seek improved, I'm sure you will be surprised." They turned to look at her when I said her nickname, pink dusting her cheeks.

"Indeed, we would like to see that." I would have made a wolf for this but I was out of energy, I barely kept standing as it was. My hands trembling a little, I asked Iorek to help with the show. _'This battle better be short; I really need to rest.'_

While she was showing her power to her parents the peerage dragged themselves up to us. I turned to look at Lord and Lady Agares. The pride in their eyes made me smile.

"She will achieve her goal, no doubts about that." I told them.

"So you know what it is?" She asked me.

"We have to. We can't help her achieve it if we don't know, can we?" I answered. She gave me a radiant smile.

"It's not an easy goal."

"We will defeat gods if we have to." I said without doubt. They both turned to me stunned. I directed my gaze to the peerage, all of them standing behind me. "Won't we?" They all nodded and I returned my eyes to the Agares couple.

"You can call us Juven and Viltaria from now on, young man." Said my King's father. When I looked at him, he nodded, I answered with a bow.

We had done a good job impressing Seek's parents. Now it was time to do the same with the other heirs, and then the underworld.

"Thank you for the honor… Juven." They nodded and turned to see their daughters' power.

There was nothing to worry about. She had power to take care of her problem.


	13. I Will Not Bow

**Thanks, mnorsyafiq92, HaMiroKar420, Rodvek97 and Big money mike for the reviews.**

**First, I want to say that I won't be respecting canon for Seekvaira. She was so ignored during the whole series that I won't bother with what little was said about her.**

**About Leo, I will just say that I have plans in mind for him. Those however will take place in the future, if ever.**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Highschool DxD, neither do I own any of the multiple resources that I will use for the story in the form of (but not limited to) references.

**Young Devil Gathering Arc – I Will Not Bow**

"Don't show weakness to anyone in there. This is just a meeting but everyone here will try to measure us." Were Seekvaria's words right before we entered where the meeting would take place.

She seemed nervous, and it was understandable. This was the moment she feared, and also the moment to show everyone. I turned to look at the others. The majority of them were fidgeting with their clothes. Most of us hadn't ever used such formal clothing.

I was using a dark green dressing shirt with black dressing pants and shoes and a black coat. The other guys were using similar clothes. The girls were all using formal dresses. Lucie had a light blue one, Brittney had a red one and Seek had a dark blue one.

We had left Leo in Agares Manor. He wasn't part of the peerage after all. He didn't seem to have a problem. He didn't like to be around strangers besides our peerage, he did seem to open up rather quickly to Seek's parents. That was surprising, I'll admit.

Lucie looked like she wanted to run away. I put a hand on her head.

"Don't worry, you look beautiful." She blushed and looked down. "Just stick around me or Liam, everything will be fine." She nodded and took Liam's arm for support. He smiled at her. "Take care of her, will you?" He nodded at me, that would keep his mind occupied too.

Then we entered. Looked like there was already a someone inside. Diodora Astaroth and Sairaorg Bael, I noticed. I straightened my back and walked on Seeks right a little behind, Dovray took her left side. The others followed either behind me or the Bishop.

"Diodora, Sairaorg." She nodded at them.

"Seekvaira." Astaroth did the same.

"It's been a while, Seekvaira." Bael was much more relaxed. "Is this your Queen? I must admit I was surprised when you suddenly chose someone nobody knew anything about. A pleasure to meet you." He said the last part to me extending his hand. When I took it, I felt the strength of the guy that Seek had always told me about.

I gripped his hand full force for a full minute. I knew he was holding back. He was all muscle strength, if I could withstand his full force like this then everything we knew about him was a lie. Then he let go.

"Heh, I look forward to our battle…"

"Seth, a pleasure to meet you too." I told him. He nodded.

"Now Seek, tell me what you have been up to." And so, the talk between heirs started. I told everyone else to go to our designated table. Seek had taken a seat between Bael and Astaroth, their Queens were seating on the other side of the table. I went an sat down next to the Bael Queen. There was something that I didn't like about Astaroth and his Queen, maybe it was all the ex-church thing.

After I introduced myself to Kuisha we made some small talk about our Kings. Bael seemed to be really laid back and a battle maniac. That explained the interaction before. We didn't have much time for talks, when someone else came in.

"Hi everyone, good to see you!" Came a voice that reminded me of Aidan, the previous wielder of Taming Sari, I prayed to Maou that he wasn't as much of an arrogant idiot. This was Zephyrdor Glasya-Labolas after all, and I had to respect him. "Well, what do we have here, the failed son of Bael, the nun lover Astaroth and the bitch for sale Agares." I immediately locked eyes with Seekvaira. She had been a second away of retorting when she saw me. She stopped and I sighed. This was going to be a long night.

"Would you do us the favor of shutting your mouth Zephyrdor?" Asked Bael in a voice that I never wanted to be directed at me. The delinquent-looking heir didn't seem to noticed the voice. He turned red and a vein throbbed in his forehead.

"For the incompetent Bael to…" He stopped mid-sentence. I had frozen his lips and looked pointedly at Seekvaira.

"You are really something to be talking about competence when you can even act as a proper heir, aren't you Zephyrdor?" She said, I could see her lip twitching to contain a smile when she looked at me.

"Who did that?" He shouted when the spell passed, he looked ready to throw a tantrum. Walking around looking for whoever had made him look stupid. As if needed help for that. "When I find you, you will wish you never... ow!" I froze the sole of his shoes to the floor and he fell on his face. I was having a hard time keeping a straight face.

"Such a shame for the Glasya-Labolas clan, isn't it?" I fake-whispered to Kuisha who was trying pretty hard not to laugh, I made sure Bael and Astaroth heard me too. Bael looked at me and nodded appreciatively. During this Zephyrdor had stood up and went away still yelling and complaining, his peerage behind him. I was half-serious actually; it was a shame for the family to have such an heir.

"Rias, Sona, long time no see." Was the greeting of Bael to the last two Heirs to arrive. I smirked when I saw their peerages, I had confirmed some things just by seen them. I looked over to Trina, she nodded and then shake her head. That put a frown on my face, troublesome.

We had discussed this beforehand, we wanted to know if there was any Senjutsu users so we would have Trina check. The first nod was to tell us that the Nekoshou had started using hers, the second was that nobody else used the art.

I would have preferred if it was the other way around. The Nekoshou could easily have surpassed Trina with just a couple of months of training. Life was unfair like that.

After that every heir introduced themselves, more for the peerages than for them. They were from the same generation after all they all knew each other.

Tsubaki Shinra sat next to me, and Akeno Himejima on her other side.

"I've been waiting to meet you Shinra-san." I told her and noticed the change that my language did on its own to match hers.

"And why is that… Seth-san?" _'Right, Japanese people find it difficult to call someone by first name.'_

"That would be because you are the first Queen that it's not a glorified Bishop. That I know of, of course." This seemed to irk the other Queens. I didn't care, what I said was true. It was disappointing really.

"Oh, so you are an allrounder too?" She seemed interested. A fellow allrounder at last.

"Isn't it a shame to waste two boosts given by the Queen piece? I couldn't bring myself to do that. Having a specialty is good but to downright ignore other aspects of battle is just too much, especially for Queens." She nodded in complete agreement.

"Indeed, it is. If I may be so bold, you don't seem to be a hand to hand fighter, which weapon do you use?" I looked pointedly at her.

"I'll tell you if you tell me Shinra-san." I continued when she nodded. "Chains." She looked surprised.

"That's an… interesting choice to do."_ 'I didn't choose though.'_ "I use naginata."

"Correct me if I'm wrong but that's a pole weapon with a singled-edged blade, isn't it?" I had made sure to study weapons and some other things from Japan; two heirs came from there after all. She nodded, seemed pretty happy that I knew her weapon.

"Ara ara, am I seeing the always cold Tsubaki opening up to a man?" Said Himejima, that made the Sitri Queen blush and stammer a reply.

"Just a friendly conversation about similar interests is all. It's not every day I meet someone that's not overspecialized, sorry if we bothered you." I said with a smile and voice as polite as I could while sending a small jab at her. She seemed to notice.

"You sure have an interesting Queen, Seekvaira." Came the voice of the Sitri heiress to interrupt us. She seemed mildly amused.

"I'll take that as a complement Miss Sitri." I smiled at her.

"And quite mysterious, everyone has been wondering why you chose someone that nobody has heard anything about." I could see that she was annoyed despite her voice and face. _'You didn't find anything about me and that bothers you, doesn't it?'_

"There are a lot like that in our peerage, we like to keep things to ourselves." I said with my best polite smile. I was using that a lot today. I think I saw her eye and Seek's lips twitch. "I'm looking forward to our match Miss Sitri, I have heard you are quite the strategist. Should be an interesting game, don't you think?"

She sat a bit straighter. She was proud of her brain it seemed.

"Indeed, Seekvaira and I have a pretty even win lose ratio on chess games, don't we Seekvaira?" Seek smiled and looked at her.

"We do Sona, but unfortunately for you I have a brain almost as good as mine to back me up." She said looking at me for a second, I directed a smirk at a slightly nervous Sona. Seemed like she didn't have a good second head on her peerage, good to know.

While we had that conversation Gremory seemed to be talking with Bael, they were cousins and seemed to have a pretty close relationship. All the chat was interrupted when the higher ups entered the room. Every King and Queen reunited with their peerages and everyone stood in front of the people that where at the peak of the Underworld.

Kings first, Queens to their right sligly behind and the rest of the peerages stood in two rows behind them. If you are wondering what we did with Iorek, we had permission to leave him at the house. The higher ups weren't too keen on having a behemoth in their presence it seems because they relented quite easily.

I saw Lord Beelzebub look at me for a second and I answered with a confident smile. I would show him the result of his help. _'I would prefer if it wasn't by destroying his relative though.'_

"Good, you have gathered. In order to check the faces of you all, who will carry the burden of the next generation, you have been gathered here. This is also a meeting that is performed over a regular cycle, so that we can ascertain the young devils."

Came the serious, no-nonsense voice of one of them.

"They seem to have fought right away, though…"

'_I wouldn't call it a fight though.' _I almost snorted when another one said that sarcastically. _'And that's what happens when you have an idiot as an heir.'_

"You six are all devils of the next generation that have a pedigree and ability that no one can object against. That's why, I want you to compete together as a debut and to help increase your power." Said Lord Lucifer. One couldn't help but feel a wave of respect for the man, he was the strongest Devil of the Underworld after all.

"Will we also eventually be sent out in the battle against the Khaos

Brigade?" Asked Bael without any doubt in his voice.

I certainly hoped not. We had found out that Nilrem seemed to be a branch of Khaos Brigade during the Peace Meeting between factions. I wanted nothing to do with that people again if I could help it. I had enough near-death situations for a while, thank you very much.

"I don't know. However, I don't want to send out young devils if

possible." Answered Lord Lucifer. _'Thank Maou, literally.'_

"Why? Even if we're young, we carry part of the responsibility of devils. If we just receive kindness from our predecessors even at this age and nothing further is done-"

"Sairaorg, I acknowledge your bravery. However, you're reckless. Above all, I'd like to avoid sending you all, who are still in the midst of growing, to the battlefield. Besides, it would be too great a loss if we lost the devils of the next generation. I want you to understand. You are all more of a treasure to us than you think. That's why I want you to experience important things step by step and grow."

I almost sighed in relief. I was this close to try and freeze Bael's mouth. That guy certainly was a battle maniac, and he sure as hell wasn't the one that had faced Incinerate Anthem.

"I understand." Was everything the heir said. You could see on his face that he disagreed wholeheartedly. I was just glad he was not my King.

Then the other higher ups took the task to inform us in the Rating Games to come and their meaning. It was a pretty dense talk if you had already read about the games. As for the meaning, they just wanted to test the strength and worth of the new generation. Basically, everyone needed to prove themselves like Seek, except that she had a penalty for failure.

"To finish things, will you now let us hear your respective future

goals?" That was a reasonable question to do to the next generation.

"My dream is to become a Maou." The first to answer was Sairaoirg. That was a shock, the heir of the Great King wanted to be a Maou, how… interesting. You could hear the mutterings of everyone about that. "When the people of the Underworld feel that there's no choice but for me to become Maou, I will become one." He added.

"My goal for the near future is to live as the next Gremory head, and to win in each Rating Game battle."

I wanted to laugh at that. The first, generic and without passion. The second, impossible, and she would know soon enough. I almost felt bad.

"I wish to build a school for the Rating Games in the Underworld." Well that was a… strange goal.

"If it's learning about Rating Games, isn't there already one for

that?" Exactly my thoughts.

"That is just a school where only high-class devils and devils of

privileged rank are accepted. The school that I want to build is one

where low-class devils and reincarnated devils can also attend

without any distinction."

Then laughter filled the place. I expected it, there were few higher ups that would take seriously a goal like that. Discrimination between ranks and origin was very much a thing in the Underworld after all. I pitied the Sitri peerage at that moment.

"I'm serious." Was all the Sitri heiress said to the mocker she received.

"Miss Sona Sitri. Low-class devils and reincarnated devils merely work for their high-class devil masters and are only selected for their talent. Wouldn't building such a training institution make the old families, who value tradition and pride, lose face? No matter how much people say that the world of devils has entered a period of change, change can be both good and bad. Something like teaching mere low-class devils really is nothing of your concern…"

"Why have you been looking down on the President—on Master Sona's dream like that!? It's strange! Why should you decide that it won't come true!? We're serious here!" Shouted one of Sitri's servants, poor fool.

"Be careful how you talk, young reincarnated devil. Miss Sona, your

servant hasn't been properly trained." Was all the higher up said.

"… I apologise. I'll speak with him later."

"Kaichou! Why!? These people, they mocked your, our dream! Why,

do you remain silent!?" He seemed like the slow type.

"Saji, be silent. This isn't a place where you can display such an

attitude. I simply told them my future goal. That's all."

"…"

"In that case! If my Sona-chan wins magnificently in the games, you won't have any complaints, right? Since many things are granted by saving up good results in the games!" Said Maou Leviathan.

I had heard of her… flamboyant personality. But seeing and hearing it was something completely different. This was the Maou that managed Foreign Affairs? How were we not at war already?

"Geez! You oji-samas are all joining forces to torment my Sona-chan! Even I have my limit of endurance! If you bully her that much, I'll torment you as well!"

I blinked. This was hilarious. I was torn between laughing and face-palming. Poor Sona was covering her face out of embarrassment, priceless.

But then came our blessing, Lord Lucifer organized for the first Rating Game to be between Sitri and Gremory. It would also work as an opening ceremony of sorts; we would have a formal dinner together the day before the game.

I wanted to cheer out loud at that. Those were the groups with most unknown factors. We would get so see them fight beforehand. That really made my day. I could almost feel the same happiness coming from Seek.

Both of them looked at each other, seemed like they were rivals. This could be an interesting match to watch.

When everything was set for the game in a month, came the turn of Diodora Astaroth.

"My goal is set up church facilities in the Underworld." My eyes widened. _'Is this guy crazy?'_ Yes, we were at peace but doing something like that. That's even more impossible than the Sitri's goal. He was received with the same scorn unsurprisingly.

I had to respect the guy, he took all the mockery with a straight face.

"My goal is to be the freest woman in the world." Said Seekvaira.

All of us straightened our backs, daring someone to mock us. Without me knowing my eyes had started glowing while I stared at the more… mentally challenged higher ups. I saw some shake their heads and some smirk but nobody said anything. I could feel it in their gazes, they mocked us. They only reason they didn't vocalize it was because they had heard the others first.

They mocked all of us. We would show them.

**[}-o-{]**

A month later we were meeting everyone again. The party was held in a high-class hotel on the edge of the Gremory territory. Being from the family of the current most powerful Maou had its perks it seemed.

Once everyone is gathered, I had something to do. I walked besides Seek up to the pairs of King and Queens of Gremory and Sitri.

"Good evening Sona, Rias." Both of us nodded at them. They greeted us to. I could see the fire on their eyes, they really wanted this battle to happen.

"What are your thoughts on the battle Seekvaira?" Was the question that Gremory asked.

"It's difficult to say, I don't have enough information to make an accurate guess." That's Seekvaira for you, never taking a chance. Except with her Queen, wasn't it hilarious?

"And your Queen, what are his thoughts on the matter?" Sona asked. She seemed intrigued by me. I raised an eyebrow at Seek, she just nodded. I glanced at their peerages.

We had found some new things already. The bishop of Gremory had been unsealed, but he would be heavily restricted during games. Trina also had managed to get a pretty good guess of everyones strength through Senjutsu.

"I would say that the Gremory group has more chances." Gremory seemed smug, Sitri wasn't affected at all.

"And why do you say that?" She asked with genuine curiosity.

"They are far stronger than your group." I didn't have to see Gremory to know that her levels of smugness were rising. Sitri seemed disappointed as well as her Queen.

"I thought you were the intelligent type, Seth." Said Sitri.

"I am." I said without hesitation, I may not have been Seek or Sitri but I had brains too. "But when there's too much difference it doesn't matter how good your strategy is." I told her.

That was the painful truth for her. If she didn't have strength to back up her plans then there was little, she could do. She nodded at me, seemingly understanding where I was coming from.

"That being said." I continued getting their attention once more. "I hope you prove me wrong Miss Sitri." She raised an eyebrow at me. "I would like to see your dream come true." I told her looking straight into her violet eyes. "It's a respectable one for anyone that's not a higher up, never be ashamed of it." She nodded with a stunned face and an almost unnoticeable blush in her face.

I really wanted to see the possibilities of Low- and Mid-class devils increase. I was one after all, and there was so much that could be taught. A school was even more needed in the supernatural world than in the normal one. There was so much that was absolutely necessary to know.

Thankfully Seek didn't seem bothered that I was basically supporting a rival of hers. But she seemed to agree with me on the value of a school like that. What's more…

"I was going to tell you the same, Sona." Said girl turned to my King. "If you get the permissions and need a hand then feel free to ask us. We will help you as much as we can."

And with that started a conversation with Sona telling Seek all she knew and learned while working as Student Council President in Kuoh Academy. During this conversation Gremory and Himejima left. Probably bored by the academical conversation, I wouldn't know. It was an interesting conversation but it really didn't change Seek's point of view on school. _'Thank Maou.'_

"You seriously let your peerage be without education?" Asked Sitri, she sounded like Seek was the worst kind of heretic ever. It was kind of funny.

"Miss Sitri, with all due respect, there's something called self-teaching." She looked like it obviously was not enough. "Also, you have to take into account that all of us are relatively old, so we already had a decent amount of education." That seemed to reassure her some.

"Were you studying to get a degree or aiming to before joining Seekvaira?" She asked and Seek flinched.

"Honestly Seek, it's not a big deal." I said exasperated. She didn't lose the slightly hurt face.

"She didn't reincarnate you without asking, did she?" Sona narrowed her eyes at Seek, the later avoiding her gaze.

"You could say that." I put up my arms in a placating manner for the Sitri heiress to see. She looked at me confused. "I was targeted by a branch of Khaos Brigade that wanted to extract my Sacred Gear." Both King and Queen flinched at that. "Seek here reincarnated me when I was at death's door. Also, we theorize that due to the attack I don't have any memories prior to that. The only thing I remember is waking up at Seeks house."

Both of them had 'pity' written on their faces. I sighed, I knew it was a normal reaction, but I didn't remember anything, not even a feeling. So, I didn't feel bad, if I stopped to think about it I would. But I still preferred to look forward, I had a family now, I would be ok.

Then came the explosion and after that an announcement that Khaos Brigade members had made an apparition just outside the hotel. Both of us and the members of our peerage tensed up. I didn't want to go against them if I could help it, but that didn't mean I would run away.

Fortunately, it seemed to be resolved by the Red Dragon Emperor and the Gremory Heiress. Good, we weren't the only ones that got wrapped up on that type of shit.

Not long after that the party finished. Not many people wanted to stay in a place where terrorist had been so close by.

A couple of days later, the Sitri vs Gremory match took place.

**Author's Note: I may take a while to post the battles, I have written them but I'm nowhere near satisfied with how they are.**

**Author's Note 2: I want to ask; do you want me to write the Bael vs Agares and a Gremory vs Agares matches? They never actually happen in canon but I can make it happen without problems. So, I'll wait for your opinion on that regard.**


	14. Should

**First of all, Thanks to Rodvek97, robocoaster, HaMiroKar420, Zephyr47 and our random guest for the reviews.**

**Second, I apologize for the time it took me to have this chapter out. A lot of shit happened at the same time.**

**One, the hype that I had when I started writing left me already. That's not to say that I will stop writing, far from that.**

**Two, I was kidnapped by a fandom I found (the Kim Possible one if you must know.) I spent most of the last two weeks reading everything that caught my eye over there.**

**Three, for a reason that I will never know I lost the file I had of this chapter. I had three chapters on hold, this and the two that come next. But when I went to check on it and correct/improve what was written I only found the same text as the next chapter. I wanted to jump out the window of my eighth floor apartment.**

**The good thing is that writing this chapter again I got a much better one. Which isn't saying much, the chapter is shit.**

**Four, well, as much as don't want to, I **_**have**_** a life. Yeah, unfortunate but what can one do. **

**FUN FACT! I actually threw dices while writing this chapter.**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Highschool DxD, neither do I own any of the multiple resources that I will use for the story in the form of (but not limited to) references.

**Young Devil Gathering Arc – Should've When You Could've**

"So, they have Ascalon _and __**Durandal**_."

"Yes, they have. The Nekoshou can already use Senjutsu in battle."

A groan could be heard. "The Red Dragon Emperor can already enter freaking _Balance Breaker_."

"With a delay." This time it was a huff. "The Priestess of Thunder is actually a half fallen, she can already use light element together with her thunder, making lightning."

"At least the Sitri team didn't have any nasty surprises, thank Maou for small mercies." I said, annoyance dripping from my voice. Seek kept her composure at the other side of the chess board, but if you knew her enough you could see that she wasn't pleased either.

"True, her team is loyal, that Line Absortion user can be troublesome and the Mirror Alice user is skilled but I think we don't have to worry about them." I actually turned to look at her, she was being honest. That had to be one of the most optimistic things I had heard from her about the Rating Games. Aside from every time we commented on the Glasya-Labolas team that is.

The Gremory vs Sitri had went as I had said. It was kind of sad in a way. The difference in strength was so laughably large that Sitri had lost all her pieces and Gremory had only lost three. Two of them out of stupidity from crimson-haired heiress and one of them out of cleverness from the sibling of the Leviathan Maou.

Sending a scout that can be taken out so easily was just… reckless to say the least, especially against Sitri. Having the Durandal user out _without _Durandal was another. Ok, apparently, she didn't have enough control on the sword, which was the reason for the swap with the other Knight but still, they could have sent her with the Twilight Healing user. Said healer had yet to do something that we could deem noteworthy. We started to think that she was just as useless as her participation showed.

On the other hand, we found another… troublesome detail about the Gremory team. They were stupidly close with each other. Sitri had understood that closeness right and wrong at the same time. Something would fall if you took out the pillar. The problem was that what would fall was their wrath upon you.

We had problems making a strategy against them because of that. If you took out the Red One then most of the team would hunt you down. If you took out too many of the other members you risked earning the Dragon's wrath. So troublesome.

Said Dragon was a problem in and on himself. Half our team would have some serious trouble taking him out. His techniques were stupid, stupid but effective. The downside was that they only worked against women. That was our silver lining. I could take him down as he was but I wouldn't bet on him staying like that until our match. Iorek could probably take him down with some problem. And the rest of the males on our group could take him down easily in my opinion.

The problem was that each time we heard about the Gremory they had something annoying added to their peerage. I was already counting on the Forbidden Balor View restriction being lifted or a Balance Breaker appearing or the Welsh Dragon using Juggernaut Drive of all things. There was nothing we could anticipate when talking about that group's improvement.

It was annoying.

**[}-o-{]**

The time for our game against Astaroth came.

There were no grand entrances. Even if Astaroth and Agares were high-class families that didn't make them popular or anything of the sort. Hell, Astaroth's team was full of ex-church members, that alone didn't help his image. And we were a bunch of nobodies. While that helped strategically against opponents it certainly didn't help with the hype levels.

Most probably we wouldn't even have a full audience. That would be reserved to Bael and Gremory, they had recognized power, they had people that could be considered celebrities in the Underworld and some would be one everywhere they went. But we didn't have that, even if we were somewhat powerful the audience wouldn't pay attention to us.

That didn't mean the world wouldn't see us. They would do it, but from their houses. No need to waste money coming to what seemed to be a normal match between High-class kids. We would show them.

We were already in our team room. A round table with enough chairs to host a full peerage and a crystal ball in the middle for us to watch the battles. On a side of the room there was a transportation circle that we would use to enter the arena.

Said arena was already displayed in the crystal ball. It didn't have any obstacles. Just a big round field where our teams would fight. The Game rules were simple: Dice Figure.

Basically, each King would throw a dice and the combined value was the total value of pieces each would be able to send to battle. It wasn't a good set of rules for us. Not only because it didn't give us room to scheme much but also because we didn't have a full peerage, not even close. They could try to tire us out with just numbers.

This could be a troublesome battle. It depended in their strength. Personally, I thought it would be easy, just as the Gremory vs Sitri. We would overwhelm them with power.

I could go into more detail too. Talk about how we couldn't send the same piece consecutively or how we only had one vial of Phoenix tears. Or how Seek determined value would be five and Astaroth's was seven. I certainly could go on about our strategy for this but…

"This match is for us to show off." I summarized. Everyone turned to me. "Nobody expects anything from us, we will show them, Gremory and Bael are not the only ones with power. We prepared for this, there's no way we will fall right here right now." I finished.

Everyone nodded, determination shining in their eyes. Iorek gave me an enthusiastic bark from the corner where he laid. I turned to Seek.

"Just remember, Alan, you can't use Taming Sari unless there's no other way. Dovray, I would appreciate if you could hold on the combo knives. I will try not to send Seth or Iorek at all. Seth, if you go out then try to only use magic." She said. Iorek gave his version of a whine. I'll admit, it was amusing seeing a behemoth whine like a little child. That was our cute gigantic puppy right there.

"Roger that."

"Of course."

"You are no fun, Seek." I whined too. What? Battling was fun, seeing other battle, not so much. Then I sent smirk at her. "In all seriousness, I hope that even then they will notice us. Because if next match is as overlooked as this one, I'll go mad and destroy Sitri." I was serious. I liked the Sitri heiress just fine but I would stomp her group if that was what it took for the world to notice our group. If that was what it took for Seek to be free I would do it.

[Now, the game is about to begin! Both teams, are you ready?]

Sounded the broadcaster's voice inside the room. Everyone straightened their backs. He didn't sound overly excited, as I said, this wasn't a match with a lot of hype behind it. He was just here to explain the rules to the audience that didn't know and set the pace.

[We will start the first match. We will choose the combatants who will be appearing. Will both of you shoot the dice, please.]

And they did. A Three and a Four. Seven. We had a couple of minutes before each match to plan. I just waited for Seek to start, she was our strategist for something.

"Alan, Dovray and Trina." She said.

"Isn't it a bit risky? Dovray is not a full fighter, neither is Trina." I asked, it wasn't that I didn't trust Seek. I was more curious than anything.

"Dovray can function pretty well in combination with other people, and Trina is not a full fighter so we have to send her with other people. We also have to save full fighters for next round so sending Liam or Brittney would be a waste." She explained and everyone nodded their acceptance. Trina looked slightly miffed though, it still bothered her every time someone pointed out that she wasn't a true fighter-type.

With the plan explained they stood in the middles of the circle and were teleported into the arena.

[From the Agares side we have a group formed by a Knight, a Bishop and Pawn while the Astaroth group has send in a Bishop and four Pawns. Will the Agares team be overwhelmed by the numbers?]

'_Not even mentioning our names.'_ I thought while my eye twitched. Then my eyes focused on the field. Every single one of them were wearing exorcist clothes. That made me slightly uneasy. Now was the moment to see if they had tricks to use against us.

[So, a runaway exorcist, a trickster devil and a nobody? This will be fun, girls!] I heard one of them say. A smirk made its way to my face. Every single person on our peerage had the same expression. That girl had messed up. Nobody made fun of Dovray's 'trait'.

[Hmmm, Dovray, want us to leave you alone?] Trina asked with a nervous expression.

[No need. She insulted all of us, so, we will answer.] Dovray answered and his teammates nodded.

[The first match starts, NOW!] The announcer interrupted.

Alan and Trina dashed to right and left respectively. A pair of enemies summoned magic circles in their hands while the others pulled out weapons. The circles weren't of light element, I noted. The weapons could be holy though.

Alan jumped over a wind blade, he had practice with those courtesy of our King. He was faced by a staff wielder and a dual dagger wielder. His sword gear appeared in his hand as he charged at the one with the staff. Staffs blocked more easily but at the same time we had faced Trina before, we had more experience against it.

Predictably the girl positioned her staff horizontally over her head to block the blow that came from above. Our Knight wanted exactly that though. He had previously flexed her legs and he jumped as soon as his sword touched the staff doing a front flip over his foe. He also slashed her right shoulder while doing so.

Once his feet where on the ground he turned around cutting the girl on the back. The girl was surrounded by a light signaling her retirement. Alan ducked under another wind blade.

Each participant had an array in their bodies that was monitored by the people that organized the Games. Said array indicated all the information on our status. That's how they knew when someone was out or not.

[Two of Diodora Astaroth's Pawns retires.] Announced the voice in our room.

Trina had done much the same as Alan on the other side of the battlefield. After doing a cut to avoid the water bullet send her way she had instead opted to go after the magician. She went over the sword user that had stood in her way pole vaulting with her spear. Said swordswoman had misunderstood her approach and tried to block an attack that never came.

Trina hadn't trained her speed for nothing. The time it took both girls to notice that she hadn't stopped was enough to pierce the magician right through her stomach. She was retired almost at the same time as Alans opponent.

Meanwhile, Dovray had been ignored as every fighter focused on Alan and Trina, big mistake. He had sent a gravity knife right under the now almost confirmed Bishop, who coincidentally was the one that had insulted them. Once she felt the weight she fell instantly on her knees. After that Dovray sent an electric knife at her and the Bishop was out.

[Diodora Astaroth's Bishop is taken out. The Astaroth team is falling apart with ease at the hands of the Agares peerage members!] The announcer seemed to be getting excited. They were falling easily and we were holding back.

The dagger wielder was barely able to hold Alan back for a few blows before her form went out the window with a particularly powerful strike. One of her daggers flew out of her hand while our Knight slashed her across the chest.

On the other side, Trina was merely entertaining the swordswoman enough for Dovray to send a knife her way. She was engulfed by an explosion soon after. Trina didn't even give her the chance to try and stand up.

[And the rest of Astaroth's team falls. None of the Agares team has so much as taken a hit. Will Diodora Astaroth be able to turn the game around in the next match?]

"You did great, no other way to say it." I told the team once they came back. "Shame you couldn't use a combo on that Bishop, eh?" I asked Dovray with a smirk, his only answer was a smirk of his own.

[Now, if the Kings would please throw the dices again?]

Five and Four. Nine. I just blinked. Seek had said she wouldn't send me if she could help it. And she obviously could avoid it this time. Either way the number was big.

"I'll go with Lucie and Liam." Seek decided after a minute. Risky again, but we didn't have a full peerage and we had just sent out half our high value pieces. It was either that combination or sending one of our secret cards, Iorek or me. It was too soon to reveal either of us. I just nodded and went over to the young ones.

"Go out there and show them. I know you will have an easy time so just enjoy." I said smirked and ruffling both their hairs. They answered with a pair of grins.

"Of course." "Just watch the show, brother."

With that I turned to Seek and smirked.

"I would ruffle your hair but I value my life. Enjoy the fight." I said to her and she gave me the faintest smirk before nodding and positioning herself on the circle together with Lucie and Liam.

[Seekvaira Agares decides to appear herself in the field accompanied by a Bishop and a Pawn!]

At least they announced Seek, that was something I guessed.

[On the other hand, Diodora Astaroth sends in a Rook and another set of four Pawns.]

This time there was no mockery. They just took their stances. Good, they were already looking at us for what we were. A powerful team.

[The second match starts, NOW!]

Not even a second later a big circle formed upon our opponents. Seek was already slowing them down. A second later all of them were trapped by Liam's bindings and he charged at them.

Once all of them were trapped Seek let the time slowing circle vanish and sent a wind blade to one of them. She couldn't free herself fast enough.

[One of Diodora Astaroth's Pawns retires. Are we going to witness another quick victory for the Agares team?]

They most certainly would if you asked me.

One of the others decided that freeing herself wasn't worth the time and decided to cast spells from where she stood. Fortunately, Lucie was a defense specialist, shields appeared wherever the magic targeted. The other girls tried to free themselves destroying the Earth bindings with their weapons without much luck.

The first to free herself, the Rook I guessed, was faced by Liam with his gauntlet already on his hand. The others were still struggling while trying to defend themselves from Seek's Wind magic.

The Rook sent a punch to my little brother. He went under it while tackling her into the ground. Then he stood and held her in a wristlock. That's how Liam fought, get the enemy in a position where they can't move and just suck their energy while they struggle to get out.

Unfortunately, things weren't going to be that easy. After trying to break the lock for a few seconds the Rook seemed to give up only for her arm to be covered in fire making the Pawn let her go. Liam stepped back and got his guard up.

[Taking a Rook out is not that easy you know?] Was everything she said before charging at him again, her left hand still in a gauntlet of flames. If that wasn't a Sacred Gear then she had a pretty good control of fire it seemed, even if it was just covering her body.

I turned my eyes to look at the other battles. Seek was still showering the Pawns with wind blades. They were not overly powerful but were dangerous enough to not be ignored. _'Is she playing with them?'_ I though. That wasn't like Seek at all.

Meanwhile the magician Pawn was still trying and failing to do something with her Ice magic. I didn't know if I wanted to be sad that her magic was so useless or proud that Lucie was so good with her barriers. I decided to go for the second.

It wasn't that the magician was bad per se, she was pretty good. She fired Ice lances as if they were arrows, and she didn't seem to get tired at all after doing that for a while now. The problem was that Lucie had a pretty damn good partner to practice against Ice.

What? I'm just station a fact.

Meanwhile, Liam was sent against a wall by a punch in the gut. That was Rook enhanced and fire powered, that had to hurt.

[Ouch, that hurt as much as brother's arrows.]

[Are you comparing my punches with mere arrows?!] That seemed to hurt the pride of the Rook.

It wasn't really an insult, I guessed. My arrows could do some serious damage. It was just that she didn't know my power. Poor thing, maybe I would be able to show her sometime.

[Another one of the Astaroth team's Pawns has fallen. Looks like the result of this match is almost certain. The question is: Will the Rook be able to take out the Pawn at the very least? This question should tell you something about the Agares group's power.]

The announcer's statement was so true I couldn't help but chuckle. This game was so unbalanced that the question was if they would be able to take someone out at all.

This didn't seem to please the Rook at all. She charged again. This time her fist was stopped by Liams gauntlet. She sent her other fist against him which he stopped with his free hand. Holding her like that he started to push her back. He didn't have the strength to actually move her but I knew what he was doing. Distracting her in order to suck her energy.

Fortunately, he had covered his normally bare hand with earth to protect it against the flames. Locking like this would have been stupid otherwise.

[You actually think you can win in a battle of strength against a Rook?] She asked baffled. Our Pawn didn't answer and just kept at it.

Now I understood why Seek was playing with the others. She was giving Liam a chance to prove his power, and ours too. She wanted to show everyone that her Pawn could take out a Rook. I smirked, _'or maybe you were just in the mood to play? Or maybe both.'_

[Wh-What? How?!] Asked the Rook once she was pushed back a few inches.

[Brother is watching.] Liam started. [He has done amazing things. If I can't even take out a Rook then he will up my training. Sorry but I like to live.]

'_Oi oi! Don't make me look like the bad guy here!'_

[Besides, as his brother,] he started pushing her back even more. [I would make him look bad if I lose, don't you think?]

Then he let go of the hand that he held without the gauntlet, startling her, and punched her in the gut. Before she could recover a fist connected with her face and then grabbed her arm. Holding her with both hands he swung her both over him smashing her on the ground.

After that he grabbed her head with the gauntlet and started hitting it against the ground over and over again until she passed out.

[Seekvaira Agares's Pawn has taken out the Astarth team's Rook! What kind of power do this people have!]

[Good job, Liam.]

[Anytime, Seekvaira.]

And after that Seek confirmed my suspicions. When Liam's fight was done, she sent a barrage of wind blades at the remaining Pawns. They were all taken out almost at the same time.

[And with that show of Wind magic Seekvaira Agares takes out the remaining pieces of the Agares team. Does the Astaroth heir have an ace in the hole or is this how the rest of the game will proceed?]

Once they came back, I ruffled the young ones' hair.

"Good job out there." They beamed at me and I turned to Liam. "What was that about me upping your training?" He gulped.

"W-well, I just… em… you see…" He stammered. Meanwhile, Lucie laughed at his predicament on the side. He sent her a look, that didn't stop her though.

"Lucie, can you heal Liam? I want him at his best once this is over and we start his training." I sent a grin at the Pawn who gulped again. He had light burns all over his body. That wouldn't be like that for long though. A tendril of green light connected him to Lucie's caduceus and started healing his wounds.

[Would the Kings throw the dices again please?]

Two and Two. Four. I smiked, that would be fun. They didn't have any more Pawns so it was either they remaining Bishop or a Knight. It was almost guaranteed that it would be a Knight.

"Brittney, you think you can take out a Knight?" I turned to Seek. She wanted to send just a Pawn?

"I think I can manage, using a powerful spell together with Twice Critical I should take her by surprise." She explained, not sounding as sure as she wanted, apparently. Seek nodded.

"Do that please. I want to save pieces for the next match in case it's a high number." It made sense, if we sent Alan or Dovray with her then the next match would be pretty obvious who would be sent in case of high numbers. Seek was taking a lot of risks this game, or maybe she trusted the team. Maybe a bit of both.

[The Astaroth team sends in a Knight and… Seekvaira Agares sends only a Pawn? Is she this confident on her power?!] The announcer sounded genuinely surprised.

I could understand though, having Liam fight the Rook by himself while having a team to rely on just in case was one thing. But sending a Pawn alone against a Knight was different, if things didn't go our way, we would lose a piece.

[Getting cocky, are we?] The Knight sounded pissed.

[The third match starts, NOW!]

The Knight charged straight at our Pawn, she just lifter her hands and a big circle formed in front of her. Her red gauntlet formed around her left hand.

[Twice Critical.] A green flash came from the Sacred Gear and the circled shined brighter. The Knight could only widen her eyes before she was engulfed by lightning. She was taken out like that and everything went silent for a few seconds.

[… Diodora Astaroth's Knight retires.] By the sound of his voice the announcer was still processing what he just saw.

Brittney came back like that. She _did_ look really tired once she appeared over the circle. Sweat poured over her brows but she had done amazingly. I honestly thought she would have to cast one or two more spells after that to take the Knight out.

"Impressive." I nodded along with Seek statement.

"Nice job, I think the announcer is still trying to close his mouth." I smirked at her and she returned me a weak one while letting herself fall on a chair.

[Would the Kings throw the dices again please.] He did seem to still be in shock.

One and Two. Three. Well, the safety measure just went out the window. We will have to send someone high this time. Unless…

"Liam, Trina." Just what I thought. A two against one. For once we would have a number advantage. I almost pitied the Knight or Bishop.

[The Agares team sends in two Pawns and the Astaroth team sends in their remaining Knight. Will this fighter be able to turn around the luck of the team?]

'_No, she won't.'_ I thought with a smirk. Then I looked at the Knight, she looked really nervous, she had good reason too. She was up against a skilled spear user and a guy that had retired her Rook teammate. The worst part was that Liam was good to go too. After all, he had absorbed a lot of energy out of the Rook and his injuries had been treated by Lucie.

[The fourth match starts, NOW!]

Liam charged straight ahead while Trina ran to a side, looked like they planned to surround the poor girl. Said girl seemed to notice too, as she charged at Trina. She was met by one of Liam's little tricks. It was not some impressive piece of magic, just some rods of earth that came out of the ground. They were designed make running uncomfortable and maybe trip an enemy with some good luck.

Turns out lady luck was with us too. The game was going perfect so far, no upsets. At least that was what we thought. When she managed to stand up again, she saw that she was already surrounded. At that moment she put one hand up and then a blinding light covered all the battlefield.

"Sacred Gear?" I muttered in a low voice. There hadn't been a circle and I doubted that she could use that kind of magic without circle and not tire herself out. Devils and light magic wasn't the most efficient combo.

"Likely." Hummed Seek by my side. That could be troublesome. Then I smirked.

"Thank Maou we sent Trina then." I said with a smirk that she returned.

[Agh, wha- HOW?!] We heard the voice of the Knight.

[You think I need my eyes to deal with you?] Trina said. [Hey, Seth. What was that about not being a full fighter?] I chuckled at that.

Then the light disappeared. We saw a confused Liam still covering his eyes with his left arm. The Knight had a nasty cut in her right thigh. Trina had a smirk in her face and the head of her spear had blood at the tip.

[Liam, at this rate Seth will have to up your training for real.] She mocked and said boy shuddered.

[Don't remind me.] He turned to the Knight that seemed to have decided to charge at him this time. [Sorry, don't want to deal with extra training.]

He lifted his right hand and a circle appeared in the ground in front of the Knight making her stop and get her guard up. What she didn't see was that there was the same circle behind her. Earth arrows shot from both circles. Soon she had several cuts on her arms and a couple of arrows pierced in her back. Barely able to move she took Trina's spear on the gut and she was out.

[Another impressive battle from the Agares group. Will Diodora Astaroth be able to do something to stop this team?]

Seemed like Seek really wouldn't need to send me or Iorek. I was kind of disappointed.

[Now, once again we wait for the values of the next match to be decided.]

Five and One. Six. Alan and Dovray, I guessed. Maybe just one of them, just in case. They could only send a Rook after all, or a Bishop but I didn't think they would do that.

"Alan. If you need to use Taming Sari do it." I nodded, if the other Rook was taken out by Liam then Alan shouldn't have any problems. And that was not even counting the holy weapon.

[Once again, the Agares Team goes with a lower value! This time we have a Knight from their side against Astaroth's remaining Rook!]

A pair of heavy gauntlets appeared on the Rook's hands as soon as she appeared on the field. I didn't remember the name, but I thought that Sacred Gear had something to do with multiplying the weight and strength in the arms. A punch from that girl had to hurt. Bad thing she was against a Knight.

[The fifth match starts, NOW!]

Alan didn't need anything else. He ran at full speed with his gear in his hands. The Rook readied her stance and once Alan was getting close, she punched the ground. It shook making our Knight lose balance for a second. The stop costed him; the girl slammed one of her armored hands against his side sending him flying against a wall.

I frowned. Getting hit so soon was bad. Alan was good, but as a Knight he didn't have the best defenses. He just couldn't shake off a hit like that. He summoned Taming Sari as soon as he stood up on his feet again. I nodded in approval.

Keeping secrets was one thing, but not loosing a single match would mean much more. A flawless victory against this team and the Sitri was not impossible. And if we managed that then we could almost guarantee a really good impression on the higher ups.

We saw the Rook shiver as soon as the holy weapon appeared.

[The Agares Knight has summoned a holy weapon! This team seems to have kept a lot of cards hidden! And we still haven't seen their Queen or Rook!]

For a second, I wondered if he had just noticed or he had been waiting to state that. I couldn't help but smirk at the thought of the other heirs. I could think of at least one that wouldn't be pleased with the secrecy.

The Rook had reached Alan already. He was still shaking, trying not to fall to the ground. That hit had been worse than I thought. He phased through a punch that the girl sent his way and then stabbed her in the gut with Taming Sari. I winced, that, _that_ had hurt. I was sure that our Knight was pissed off. She shook for a couple of seconds coughing blood before being taken out.

[And like that the Agares team gets another victory!]

'_No more comments about the Astaroth team'_, I noted. It wasn't surprising, they only had a Bishop, a Queen and their King. Not exactly much to be positive about.

[Would the Kings throw the dices again, please?]

Four and Six. Ten. They could send either the Queen or the King with the Bishop. The latter would be a dangerous bet but as things stood…

"Dovray, Liam, Trina and me." Was Seek's decision.

We were risking a lot for the sake of keeping Iorek and me as hidden cards. Alan had just taken a nasty hit, otherwise we would probably be sending Lucie and Him instead of Seek and Trina. As things stood the former was treating the later. Brittney on the other hand had spent way too much energy taking out the Knight in one shot, so she was out too, probably until the end of the game.

I really hoped they would send the Queen, an advantage in numbers would do wonders in this match, specially with Seek on the team. The bad thing about this match was that the next one we wouldn't have anyone to send except maybe Alan.

"If Diodora decides to appear in this match then Dovray will take the Bishop while Trina and Liam help me against him." Explained Seek before standing in the circle with the others, they each gave her a nod of understanding.

[And the Agares team sends in two Pawns, a Bishop and Seekvaira Agares herself! The Astaroth team on the hand sends in a Bishop and Diodora Astaroth himself to the battlefield! We are witnessing a battle of Kings in this match!]

The Bishop had a black gauntlet in her hand, Weakening Line. It wasn't difficult to recognize. The gear was right next to the Absortion Line Sacred Gear in the books. It was a weaker version of the latter. While the Vritra fragment allowed the user to take something from the target and give it to the user Weakening Line only took it and vanished it into nothing.

It could be troublesome but Dovray would manage.

[The sixth match starts, NOW!]

Everyone separated as our King said. Dovray drove the Bishop away from Astaroth with a couple of knives. Said girl started shooting lines at him which he managed to dodge. The fight was on.

They dance around each other. It reminded me of my battle with Walburga. Whoever got the other first would have the upper hand on the battle. The problem for the Bishop was that she could only shoot one line at a time, the same could not be said about my comrade's knives.

Unfortunately, once he tried to shoot several knives at the same time he was met with a surprise. The Bishop had Barrier affinity. She deflected every knife that she couldn't dodge. That was troublesome. The good thing was that she would spend way too much energy with her shields while Dovray's knives used almost no magic at all.

They were pretty even in the dodging department. So, the fight would be one of stamina and luck. If someone got the other, they would be ahead, if someone tired out, they would be behind. That was unless one received back up.

On the other side of the battlefield, our members were having trouble against the King. Seek already had him slowed down, fortunately. Unfortunately, Liam and Trina couldn't get near him to attack. The Astaroth clan trait was an interesting one. Assault Manipulation.

The trait gave them too things. First, it guaranteed that they would have an Assault affinity. That type was the direct opposite of the Barrier affinity. It was all about attacking with pure energy-based spells that didn't have an element and therefore didn't have a weakness.

The second part of their trait was were the 'Manipulation' part of the name entered. They could do whatever the hell they wanted with their spells with much more ease than anyone else. They could be using a circle that summoned a simple arrow and change it to a dragon midflight. Nothing was impossible to do; the only limits were energy and creativity.

There was also the fact that their trait made the 'imagination-based magic' much more literal. They didn't need nearly enough concentration and comprehension for their attacks as anyone else would. It was said that Ajuka Beelzebub didn't even try to use circles as it only hindered his options. He was a true genius and as such he had all the concentration and comprehension he could need. The Maou could use his magic as easily as I could walk. It was scary.

Diodora Astaroth had surrounded himself with several blades of magic that rotated around him. Every time one of our Pawns tried to get near him, they would be met with one of two of the blades that pushed them back.

Furthermore, he was sending blades at them and Seek. The latter couldn't move easily while maintaining the slow so she had to rely on Trina to block the blades send after them. That left only Liam to try and get near the heir. That battle didn't look good. Liam was not the most mobile one of us and a gauntlet was not the most reliable tool to block attacks, and Trina had to stay still to cover our King.

The plan they came up with on the fly was simple. Liam would shoot magic at the Astaroth. His arrows were met with the blades that protected the heir. It wasn't a perfect plan, but it was something. Looked like this side was also a battle of stamina. Even the announcer could see that the match was pretty even compared to the others and couldn't help but comment on it.

After a minute, the battle between Bishops was still pretty much undecided. Our opponent had managed to connect a line to Dovray but the latter had exhausted her. She couldn't continue blocking with shields and thus she started getting hit by his knives. Her body was covered in burns, cuts, and finally she fell on her knees, victim of a gravity knife.

[And the Bishop battle reaches its end with the Agares side as the winner!]

On the other side, everyone was breathing heavily. Liam and Trina had cuts all over their bodies. The latter looked on the verge of being taken out. Even Seek had a cut on her arm from one of the blades that got past Trina. Astaroth was no exception though. He was winded and covered in sweat.

Both teams had used their Phoenix tears already, Astaroth on himself and Trina had used ours. She had been taking all the attacks directed at her and Seek after all. And while the heir had a pretty good defense system around himself, he had needed to recover from a couple of cuts given by Liam's arrows and replenish his energy.

[Liam, cover Seekvaira too.] Dovray told our Pawn, who barely managed to drag himself, standing right next to Trina and rising an Earth shield in front of them. That shield wouldn't withstand more than a couple of blades, I noted.

Our Bishop shot a knife at the enemy King. The blades stopped the knife, but there was a little problem with that now. The blades orbited too close to the heir, so when he stopped the knife it sill fell pretty close to Astaroth.

High-class devils weren't known for their physical prowess but being tired didn't do the Astaroth heir any favors. He couldn't get out of the gravity field fast enough, that on top of the slow from Seek made him stand immobile and that was not good against our trap master. Another knife connected with his body and he was out.

[And the game goes to the Agares team!]

Everyone on the room let out a breath that none of them had known they were keeping. Suddenly I felt like I had escaped a gravity field of Dovray's. The weight of the game had been lifted from all of us. Trina and Liam fell to the ground before being transported. Seek and Dovray were sent back into the room but the Pawns had to be taken to the hospital as the rest of the retired pieces.

"We won." Said Seek with a soft voice as Lucie started healing the cut in her arm. "We won." She repeated, this time with more emotion.

"Yes, we took the first step to our goal." I stated putting a hand on her shoulder and looking directly into her eyes. "Great job. You too, Dovray." His only answer was a smirk.

"Did you expect anything else?" He could be a cheeky bastard sometimes.

"Let's go see visit Trina and Liam, there shouldn't be any problem with that." Seek told us standing straight. A smile adorned her face. The same smile that was in all our faces.

One down, four more to go.

**AN: I just want everyone to know that I posted a poll to decide if there will be Gremory vs Agares and Bael vs Agares.**


	15. The Vengeful One

**Thanks to GGPD, HaMiroKar420, Ashborn2271, Rodvek97, mnorsyafiq92, HeyRawj, Ragnas Bredvolts and guests for the reviews.**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Highschool DxD, neither do I own any of the multiple resources that I will use for the story in the form of (but not limited to) references.

**Young Devil Gathering Arc – The Vengeful One**

"Khaos Brigade _again_, we can't have a break, can we?" I asked casually. My scythe connected with another stupid Devil from the Old Maou Faction of Khaos Brigade.

We had had a pretty relaxed week after the Astaroth vs Agares game. People talked about us a lot more than before. We were already making our names known. We were already proving ourselves.

However, peace wouldn't last for us.

We had just come to witness the difference between our group and possibly the most troublesome team of the Heirs. It was going to be a day to relax, see our opponents battle and then spend the rest of the day going around the city.

Until all hell broke loose. Literally. Teleportation circles appeared everywhere and Khaos Brigade started its attack. Don't ask me why, but these guys decided it was a good idea to attack in the middle of the games. Yeah, with gods and faction leaders present. Never let it be said that Khaos Brigade isn't brave. Or stupid.

"Can you shut up and hurry?" Hissed Seek behind me. We were back to back dealing with as many as we could, the others were forming a circle around Lucie to keep her safe. Just in case we needed a heal and because she couldn't fight, obviously.

I frowned and summoned as many Ice lance circles as I could. They would rain upon these idiots. And rain they did. I don't even know how many I took.

That's when I saw it. A group of parents shielding their children in a corner.

"Seek, go to the others." I told her. She was about to protest but I wouldn't have it. Not now. "Go, now!" I ran in the middle of the battlefield, I had to make it.

Ice lances and my scythe cut down the attackers and I made a dome of ice with very thick walls around the group of people and me.

"Is someone hurt?!" I shouted to get them to focus. Some shook their heads and the rest didn't say anything. Good.

I looked out, there were a lot of enemies. How to get this people to safety. I had to go out and continue helping and I didn't know how much damage the dome could take. I had to take this people out but…

I had an idea.

"Ok, everyone, I will take everybody out of here. I need you all to form two rows and be ready, ok?!" I received some hurried nods from the parents and the children looked like I was a hero in shining armor. I almost laughed at that. I was practically a Grim Reaper. When everybody was ready, I continued. "I'm going to take down the shield and form a giant Ice bird, I want all of you to get on top of it, am I clear?!" I waited for it to sink and did exactly that.

The dome disappeared into thin particles of ice that looked like snow. And then it seemed to reform. But this time where there was a dome now stood a giant eagle. Free Wind, Filo. I had never made one as big as this one though. It was sure to leave me out of energy. But it needed to be done.

"Filo! When this people all get up here let's take them out of this battlefield!" It didn't take them much. I had made the Ice rougher in order to not slip when mounting it. The fly was another thing, I had to work out circles that were already engraved in the wings and body to make this gigantic ice block fly. But it flew, and it did it like the proud bird it once was.

And like that, when everyone was set, we took the sky of the underworld. The giant ice eagle draw attention like a beacon but everyone was fighting somebody. They couldn't afford to attack us. There was also the fact that I was blocking every attack sent our way with my chains or magic. Yeah, I would be wasted by the end of this.

It didn't take much for Filo to take us far enough to leave the people in a safe place.

"Thank you, Ice Nii-san!" I heard a child shout. I smiled in that direction. _'Brother, huh?'_ I couldn't help but imagine Liam and Lucie among the kids. _'Although, nii-san…'_ With the Red Dragon Emperor that was a celebrity in the rising already coming from Japan, their honorifics and such were already spreading.

"Be careful, ok?" I called out and all the children nodded enthusiastically. My smile widened. "And remember to cheer for the Agares team during the games." I joked.

Then I summoned a smaller Filo to take me back. I would be almost out of energy by the time I got back. I had wasted too much energy with that stunt. Maybe I should have just let them stay in the dome. It could have lasted…

There was no use thinking like that. It was done. I landed back with the group.

"Done playing hero?" Said Seek, she looked angry.

"Eh! I got fans for the team!" I smirked at her. She rolled her eyes at me, but had a small smile in her face.

Khaos Brigade was losing the battle unsurprisingly. But it was not done, where they had gotten so many devils was anyone's guess. The number wasn't going down nearly as fast as we would have liked. We charged and charged back. They wouldn't leave here without a kick on their asses. We were sick and tired of dealing with them and we were proving exactly that.

Liam punched them around like they had hit Lucie, which they probably _tried_. Dovray was using some of his nastiest knife combos. Brittney was having fun shocking as many as she could with her spells. Seek was shooting wind blades that made me think she was just unleashing a hurricane. Alan was dancing around swinging both his Sacred Gear and Taming Sari. Trina was much the same with her spear.

We were unleashing our fury in these idiots. We had dealt with them one too many times already. We wanted them gone. I didn't even use the wolves with the chains. I just let them have fun with every enemy I killed. Nobody crossed my path, which was good. I was in something like a trance. It was just me and the enemies. And they would die.

This was the Underworld. This place was to be my home. The territory was something different. That was something we rarely saw besides the house, but this was something else. This was one of our cities, these were our people they were attacking. My eyes shone and my lips twisted in a savage grin. They had invaded my home and they would die because of that.

And then it happened.

I felt a surge of power go through my body. A long coat formed over my clothes. Black as the darkest shadow with details of pale, mint green. The chains disappeared and the scythe grew in size. The lantern disappeared too and the flame that was previously there stood on the point where the blade of the scythe connected with the handle inside a silver skull.

And I didn't even spare all this a second glance.

[Balance Breaker: Reaper of Souls]

I just needed their souls. Their souls would mine. I would get them all.

My speed didn't stop increasing more and more, I was just a blur of black and green that left a path of bodies cut in half. My peerage called me; my King called me. But I didn't care, the enemy was still standing. I wouldn't let that happen.

Every last one of them would fall for my blade.

And they did. And for every soul I got, I got more power; it was intoxicating. I wanted more. I needed more. More power to cut down more enemies. More enemies to get more power. My mind circled like that as my scythe cut down life after life.

But then there were no more enemies. I looked around, there was nobody but allies… but they were allies. Maybe they weren't. What if they were enemies disguised as allies? No, I wouldn't fall for that. All of them would fall instead. Their souls would be mine. I prepared my scythe once again.

And then I seemed to slowdown. Knives fell in the ground around me and I felt the weight of the sky on my shoulders. An auburn-haired boy put a hand on my chest and I felt strength leaving my body. I fell to my knees. The coat disappeared and the scythe turned back into the chains, lantern and one-handed scythe. The chains disappeared afterwards. I had no more energy.

"I'm sorry." I muttered. I felt someone wrap their arms around me. But my eyes had already closed.

**[}-o-{]**

"Did Iorek tackle me full force?…" I muttered and then a groan left my mouth. "I feel like shit."

"Language." A familiar voice chided in a somewhat playful manner. I felt my head lay on something soft. My eyes opened slowly and I saw two orbs of pink in front of me.

"Seek?" I asked weakly.

"Yes, idiot." She said, there was no strength in her voice.

"What happened?" I didn't know, I remembered saving some civilians in Filo and then fighting with everyone. Then everything was blurred and confusing.

"You unlocked Balance Breaker and went mad." She said. My eyes opened wide and I stared at her to see if she was joking. She wasn't, obviously, she was Seekvaira after all.

"I didn't hurt any allies, did I?" I was afraid of the answer. I had read what happened when someone went mad due to Balance Breaker. There were some really bad stories.

"No, but it was a close thing. You were about to when we stopped you." She explained and I sighed in relief.

"Then… did I look cool at least?" I asked, half-joking.

"Idiot." She just said.

"I'll have to ask Liam and Alan." I continued the joke. Until I noticed. "Where is everyone?"

"Some were wounded, Alan is in the hospital but he will be okay. Brittney and Trina exhausted themselves. The others are with either of those groups."

"And the attack?" I asked.

"It was stopped a couple of minutes ago or so, but seems like Astaroth and who knows who else are still causing problem against the Gremory group."

"I don't envy them." I sat up. I stared at her. "Did cold as ice Seekvaira give me a lap pillow just now?" I grinned when I saw pink paint her cheeks. "So cute." I teased some more. Her eye twitched but her face reddened more. "Thank you, Seek." I said in a serious tone that took her off guard. "Seriously, thank you."

"Idiot." Was everything she said and smiled at me.

ROOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!

We were interrupted by a roar sent chills down my spine and I broke out in a cold sweat. We saw a Juggernaut Drive Boosted Gear going completely berserker in the distance. I paled, no matter how weak the user was, Juggernaut Drive was a disaster taking solid form.

There was just nothing good about that. If me going mad with Balance Breaker was bad then this was catastrophic, literally. That guy could obliterate this city if there wasn't a Maou or someone on that level to take care of it. And even then, I had my doubts.

He certainly didn't seem to be calming down.

I looked at Seekvaira. She looked at me. I took a deep breath.

"Take me there." I said. She looked at me like I had grown a second head. "Take me there, I contained Incinerate Anthem as a devil, I can probably contain that too." I said.

"Probably." She emphasized.

"Do you want to let him roam free in the city?" I asked. She looked like she would have said yes. She sighed. "I'm not going to die." She looked at me. "I still owe you remember? I can't die yet." She looked conflicted for a second before nodding.

"You are an idiot."

"I thought that was a given, I'm still trying to prove otherwise with our chess matches." That brought a smile to her face. She unfolded her wings and carried me in the direction of the big bad red dragon. It was a bad idea. I knew it was a bad idea. Seek knew it was a bad idea. But what else was there to do.

We landed near it. The Gremory group was there.

"What happened here Rias?" Asked Seek.

"We… one of us was murdered." She said in a voice that was little more than a whisper. I cursed under my breath. The others in the group were a mess.

"Get your act together. I can probably give you a chance to wake him up." I told her. She looked at me with so much hope that it almost hurt. It would break my heart if this didn't work. If I survived that is. I summoned my chains. "Gather everyone. I won't last long." _'Guys.' _A series of barks answered; they were ready.

I charged at the dragon. I felt so stupid. But I had to. There was no other choice. It was this or letting him destroy the city. I wouldn't let that happen. The chains flew at the Red Dragon Emperor both wrapped around his shoulders.

I felt my power leave me so fast that I almost fainted right there. But I contained it. It worked. He wasn't trashing around, he just stood there, stunned. Now it depended on the others. I heard shouts behind me, but they weren't shouting at the dragon. I wanted to curse them all for taking so long. My energy wouldn't last. I was going to-

"Ise! Asia is alive, look at her!" I heard a voice shout at him. _'Finally.'_ The dragon twitched. But other ways continued resisting the chains.

"I am alright! Ise-san!" That brought back some of his conscience it seemed. It lost strength it continued to drain me but not as much.

"Ise!" "Ise-kun!" "Ise-san!" "Ise-senpai!"

"""COME BACK!"""

The gigantic dragon started shrink. The scale-like armor plates retracted. Skin started to show again. He was coming back. I fell to my knees.

"Haha… hahahaha… Hahahahahaha!" I laughed like a lunatic. "Suck that, two Longinus biting the dust against a low-tier Sacred Gear!" I shouted. Maou, I didn't have energy. I was falling to the floor. Someone held me before my face hit the ground.

"Idiot." Seek said to me. Those were an awful lot of 'idiot's I received today.

"Impressive, young man." Said someone behind me.

"I know, I'm just awesome like that." I answered. He chuckled.

"I would say so. That's Soul Warden, isn't it?" He asked, sounded curious.

"Yeah, this piece of shit is way more awesome than the books say."

"I can see that." He whispered with what sounded like awe. "You said two Longinus?"

"I contained Incinerate Anthem like that. After we killed her the Sacred Gear entered mine. Lord Beelzebub said it's just tagging along." He laughed at that.

"You are an interesting young man it seems." He said. "I will have to talk to you after you wake up."

"Sure." And I gave up conscience. Everything went black for the second time that day.

**[}-o-{]**

I woke up to see a white ceiling. When I looked around everything seemed white. It took me a minute to recognize that I was in a hospital room. Liam and Lucie were asleep on a couch supporting each other in a half-seated half-laid way. Seek was next to them on a chair of her own asleep too.

There was a man there too. He was tall and had black hair with golden bangs.

"Do I know you?" I asked.

"Something like that, we had a little chat before you passed out." He explained.

"Oh, yeah. You were curious about my Sacred Gear." I remembered.

"Exactly. I don't have any information about anything that you can do with yours, and you could say I'm a fanatic of Sacred Gears." He explained.

"Ok, I'm guessing you want to know more." He nodded enthusiastically. "Seek would have kicked your ass back then if you were bad or something. So, I guess I can tell you. Just don't tell anyone that can get the information to the other Young Devils." He nodded again.

I started explaining everything I had gathered on my Sacred Gear. The wolves, the control, the lantern, the constructs, the Balance Breaker.

The memories of the last one seemed to come back in pieces. Like a distant memory that you barely get glimpses in your mind. But I knew the general idea of everything that happened.

"Oh, by the way." He interrupted when I was on the constructs part. "There are videos of you saving people with a giant ice eagle. The kids are already giving you names, the most popular is Ice Guardian. You could get your own TV show in the Underworld at this rate. Just like-"

"Don't even say that Maou forsaken show." I cut him mid-sentence. If I hear anything about the perverted dragon's show one more time, I will go on a rampage again. We had heard about it a while ago and I absolutely hated it. Where was the respect and fear a Longinus should impose? Just thinking about that made me want to sigh and facepalm.

Then I continued explaining everything I had learned. He asked details about everything. He even wanted to see the circles of the constructs. He was a really curious man.

"Lord Azazel? What are you doing here?" I did a double take at Seek's question. She seemed to have woken up after a while.

"You are Azazel, leader of Grigori?" I asked pointing at him. He tilted his head.

"Yeah, why?" I just stared at him for a minute and then pinched the bridge of my nose.

"What's with faction leaders and their laidback attitude?" First Lord Beelzebub, then Lady Leviathan, now the Governor of the Fallens. Who's next? Michael? Zeus? Odin? "Anyway, do you want to ask anything else?" I asked him.

"Not particularly, you were awfully detailed." He said amused. "And Ajuka seemed to already have an idea of some of this things, which is why he didn't come. Only one of us could and as the one that had still to talk to you, he let me come." I decided to ignore all the second part for what little sanity I had and focus on the first.

"I like my Sacred Gear. I'm going to prove that it's at the very least a High-tier one." I said looking directly at him.

"Well, as far as I saw it could be Longinus material pretty easily if you can contain a god as you did the Red Dragon Emperor." He said with a smirk. I blinked and then returned his smirk. I decided I liked this guy.

"How's him by the way?" I asked.

"He lost a good chunk of life force due to that stunt but he will live." He said with a serious tone.

"Could you tell him I'm glad that he is ok?" I asked. He nodded and went to the door.

"Prove your power to the world, kid. This generation is certainly full of surprises." And with that he left.

"How are you feeling?" Seek, that had been on the side only listening the conversation, asked me.

"Like I stopped the Red Dragon Emperor with my chains after going mad with my Balance Breaker." I said to her with my best serious expression. She swatted my shoulder and rolled her eyes. I couldn't hold my laugh.

"Idiot." That brought a smile to my face, but it vanished just as fast. I looked at my arms. I still had black burns where the chains wrapped around my forearms. "They say it will take time to erase them. You burned yourself with your own magic to maintain the restriction on the dragon." She explained.

"I'm going to get a new pair of tattoos." I told her.

"And why this time?" She asked.

"I'll tattoo these chains." I said caressing the burns with my fingers. "To remember that I have to control myself as I did the Red One. I remember now. I was going to attack allies. I was going to attack the peerage. I was going to attack you. It is my shame to carry." I said.

"Idiot." She repeated and I had lost count of how many times by now. "I'm just glad you are ok." I smiled at her.

"Was I out for long?" She shook her head.

"Only a day. It was just minor injuries, the burns in your arms and extreme magical and physical exhaustion. You will be sleeping half a day for some time to recover from that last one." She all but ordered me. I just nodded.

"And then start training again. We have Rating Games to win. Teams to crush. And a beautiful girl to set free." Her face could have put the Gremory's hair to shame.

**[}-o-{]**

"Good morning, it's good to see you are ok." Said Rias Gremory after coming to visit us at Agares Manor.

"Good morning Miss Gremory, it's good to be ok." I greet her with a smile.

"I heard you had a pretty bad day even before what happened." She said. Must have heard about my Balance Breaker. How much she knew would be a problem.

"You could say that. Not as bad as your Pawn though. How is he?" I said, her face turned grim but not as much as I though.

"He lost most of his life span. The good news is that Koneko, our Senjutsu user, can help him recover it little by little." That was interesting. I didn't know Senjutsu could do that. Must have been an advanced technique we hadn't looked at.

"I'm glad to hear that. Everyone else is ok?" I asked. I truly didn't know what to say to her. We hadn't really talked much.

"Yes, some were pretty shaken about what happened, but they are already recovering by being with everyone else." She explained to me. "Can you tell me something?" I locked eyes with her. "What does Seekvaira mean by been the freest woman in the world?" She asked, she actually sounded curious.

"You of all people should know." I answer, she looked even more curious now. "If she doesn't impress people in this Rating Games or through other means she will get set up in a marriage contract." I explained, and she frowned.

We were pretty sure that with what happened during the last attack and our performance against Astaroth and Sitri should be enough. Especially because what Azazel said was true. I was quickly becoming a minor star in the Underworld after my stunt with Filo.

"I hope you can achieve that even after losing to my peerage." She said challengingly.

"I don't know what you are talking about, I can take down that Pawn of yours as you already saw." I smirked at her.

"You merely contained him for a minute, and then you were dead on your feet." She countered. My smirk didn't waver one bit and I saw her frown again.

"Think that if it helps you sleep at night. But that dream of yours, about winning every Rating Game. We will win, so you may want to look for a new dream." I said to her. She left soon after that.

"You said that with a lot of confidence." Seek told me when Gremory left.

"Because I have it." I answered looking at her.

"He already has his Balance Breaker under control." She said. "And her group is already improving a lot."

"Doesn't matter, we will improve more. I will dominate my Balance Breaker before that game. I'm sure." I told her.

After a week of nothing but boring reading and circle designing, I was finally free to train again. The first thing I did was tackle my Balance Breaker with everyone ready to stop me if I went mad again.

My Balance Breaker was something really _really_ troublesome. It gave me power according to the souls I had sealed in my 'prison'. The problem was that the more the souls opposed me the less control I had in that form. Add that to the fact that when I unlocked it, I was in the middle of a battlefield where I was annihilating power-hungry idiots. I'm actually surprised I could guide all that rage only to my enemies.

After that I cleared every last one of those idiots' souls out of my 'prison'. The only ones remaining were Laura, the wolves, Filo and Walburga. The last one has been giving information little by little but we know she has more. She isn't even denying it. I think she actually likes being in the 'prison', at least she likes it more than the banishment idea. The problem is that she still opposes me.

I've already given her an ultimatum. If she messes up with me while I'm on Balance Breaker I will banish her. She accepted rather quickly. Since then I have been trying to practice it. There I noticed another problem.

Every collected soul while on that mode lengthens the time I can use it. It only uses energy when I don't collect souls soon enough. The problem is that it uses a shit ton of energy if that's the case. I can barely maintain it for a minute or two and then I'm dead on my feet.

That's a problem because I'm already at a point where increasing my energy pool through meditation does little to help. Which is to say that I have hit a wall in my training to enlarge my reserves. So, I'll have to count on that minute to be enough to deal with whatever enemy they throw at me.

Despite all the problems, the Reaper existed now and it was part of the Agares House.

**[} Chapter End {]**

**Hey guys! How's it going?**

**First, I want to say, I have some serious doubts about this chapter. I can't seem to write is as I want to but here it is. If you like it, if you don't, feel free to tell me just as long as you give me your reasoning. If you like it just tell me and you'll make my day, seriously.**

**Second, next chapter comes Agares vs Sitri… I'm dreading writing that. Writing a strategy-based game between two people that are supposed to be strategists is going to be a pain. **

**Third, I deleted the poll because well, it was already in a 11 against 1 in favor of writing the games. So, Agares vs Gremory and Agares vs Bael will be a thing! However, most of it seems to be because you people want the Gremory group to have their asses kicked.**

**That was amusing to find out, so much hate against what is supposed to be the popular group. I'll admit I chuckle every time I think about that. So, I want to ask you something.**

**QUESTION: Do you dislike the Gremory group? Why?**

**In my case, the only one I actively dislike is Issei. He is such a… infuriating character. I want to respect a main character, but I can't respect Issei. I just can't. He even takes out the fun in the most awesome thing anime, manga and light novels have to offer, power-ups. I'm so not an Issei fan.**

**Then there are some of the others. Asia, for example, is so useless it just makes me mad. Every time I think about her character, I think it's awesome, she has an amazing Sacred Gear, but she does next to nothing besides acting cute or naïve. I just ugh…**

**I hope to get some answers from you guys.**

**See you.**


	16. Liberate Me I

**Thanks, mnorsyafiq92, Ashborn2271, faithful despair, GGPD, HaMiroKar420, HeyRawj, Rodvek97, robocoaster and OnetimeMuffin for the reviews.**

**Man, that was a long ass list of names. I also noticed that a lot of you guys leave reviews often. I just want to tell you that you are awesome, you are the people that keep me writing.**

**Thank you, really.**

**Also, thank you for answering my question, there were some interesting things to read in your reviews.**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Highschool DxD, neither do I own any of the multiple resources that I will use for the story in the form of (but not limited to) references.

**RANDOM FACT: I doubt someone noticed but the names of most of my OCs are from the voice actors of the characters that gave me the base for said OCs.**

**Young Devil Gathering Arc – Liberate Me I**

**Seekvaira POV**

It had been a month since the Astaroth vs Gremory fiasco.

I was preparing strategies for the game against Sona. We had seen their capabilities and there was little they could improve in just two months; it wasn't like they were the Gremory group. And even if they did surprise us, it would have to be really big improvement to make a difference.

I had also started contacting some people to help with an idea of mine but there was little confirmed yet. It would have to wait for the next game sadly.

As for the others, Trina reached the point in which she could use Senjutsu for battle. She barely managed to use one of those attacks without exhausting herself though. But that one hit could take out anyone besides Seth and Iorek. So, it was a great asset.

Liam's training was a coming along nicely. He and Alan had proven to have a great work ethic, Seth called them training maniacs. I was entitled to tell him that he was worse but I limited myself to raise an eyebrow every time he commented on it. Back to the auburn-haired boy, his battle power had increased a lot and we had noticed that he's ability to absorb energy had improved too somehow. I theorized that he was near Balance Breaker too. That was good and bad news at the same time. I just hoped that if he achieved it and went mad, Seth would be close by to contain him.

Alan for his part was also showing Balance Breaker signs or what we thought were signs at the very least. His sword would sometimes give off a flash of color that wasn't white as normal. A worrying thought was what could happen if they achieved it at the same time. We tried to avoid even thinking about that. He also was improving a lot in his personal style of a longsword and dagger, to use his gear and holy weapon.

Little Lucie's Sacred Gear wasn't showing any signs but we weren't discouraged. She was still improving steadily her reserves to use her gear and shields without stopping. That alone made her one of my most useful members. I trusted my peerage to last long enough for her to heal them if the situation got out of hand.

Dovray for his part had had his own surprise in the form of a comrade.

**[}-o-{]**

"I'm sorry for coming uninvited but I couldn't contain myself." Said the boy that we received with confused faces at the door. He was a fair-skinned boy with spiky, black hair that had a slight blue tint to it. His hair was chin-length that parted to frame the sides of his face.

"Don't worry about that but, what do you need huh…?" Asked Seth slowly. The boy wasn't the first visit we had had that came uninvited. There were several visits like this after the terrorist attack. We were being seeing as heroes after Seth and Filo's stunt saving all that people.

"Xander Pythius, it is a pleasure to meet the Ice Guardian in person." I couldn't suppress the smallest of smiles at that. It was like seeing a little child gushing over their favorite hero. "I can't believe it, Dovray Demiurge in the flesh! Can I get an autograph?!" And then my grin grew, it went past the level of hero worship, the little boy looked like a church child that met God himself.

"Hm, huh, sure." One could almost feel how uncomfortable Dovray was with the situation. He gave the boy the autograph anyway.

"So, you were saying, Xander?" I asked him, I was sure my amusement showed in my face. Seth's smirk when he looked at me told me as much.

"Oh, yes! I wish to join your peerage Heiress Agares." And with that he bowed. We looked at each other. Now, _that_ was something that hadn't happened before.

"Could you tell us why and a little about yourself, please?" I said.

"Of course, I wish to join in order to be strong. My clan has always been looked at like a weak one, even more than the Demiurge. So, I have been training as a swordsman all my life. And now there's a group of underdogs that ran over a full peerage without using all their cards. Even more, you fought the last terrorist attack! He stopped the Red Dragon Emperor!" He said pointing excitedly at Seth. "I wish to join in order to be as strong as you!" He finished his speech. I looked at Seth and he looked at me.

"Alan?" Was all he said. I nodded. And like that we got Alan to test the boy and see if he would join or not. After some background check, just in case.

What we found was pretty interesting. According to Alan, the boy, using swordsmanship alone, was on the same level as him when he joined us. The others had also learned what his family clan trait was, Dovray and I hadn't told them to let it be a surprise. Illusions. And he was very good at using them together with his sword to ruin his opponent's stances.

He had made a pair of illusions of himself and surrounded Alan with them. They vanished after the slightest touch but it was enough to mess with Alan's guard and get an opening. So, against someone that wasn't used to them they were really effective.

It was not as impressive as it may sound. Making illusions was easy for their clan. Making them believable… was another thing altogether. They could only use magic to make illusions. There was also the fact that they had to work them to perfection with help of their own circles to be able to use them during battle.

But the boy had worked his 'clones' so much that he could use them in almost every battle situation. He was an impressive boy, and thus my team gained another Pawn.

**[}-o-{]**

So, Dovray had been dealing with his little fanboy, as Seth called him, from that day. He also was still working with his traps now that his knives had little to no room for improvement, at least until he had a breakthrough or something of the sort.

Brittney had been working nonstop with her magic in order to not be left behind. She had entered the same state as I had some time ago, meditating every time she had a chance. Her reserves improved a noticeable amount every _day_. We wondered when she would start slowing down her pace.

And finally, Seth's progress had been amazing, even if he wasn't nearly as satisfied as I was with it. Besides getting his Balance Breaker under control Seth had been working on improving the efficiency of his constructs even more. Especially during the first week in which I wouldn't let him train anything physical.

He was able to maintain two wolves pretty easily for half a day. For though fights he could use three for about two hours and for emergencies he could use four for about fifteen minutes. He was really proud of himself for that.

He had also improved Filo's circle a lot too. Seth had learned how useful she could be the hard way. It was not only for himself; he could use it to transport people, even injured allies and the like. Filo could save one of the peerage's life one of these days.

Besides that, little had changed for him. Seth had hit a wall magically and physically speaking. The only thing he was working on right now was the constructs and his two-handed scythe mastery to increase the power of his Balance Breaker.

He seemed to be frustrated with his progress being slowed down so much. Especially considering that he couldn't lengthen his Balance Breaker's time without improving his reserves.

But leaving that aside, the peerage was as ready as it could be to play our game against Sona's peerage.

**[}-o-{]**

Our game rules had been decided. Scramble Flag. It was a heavily strategic type of game. It had to have been on purpose, putting Sona against me. Two strategists against each other on a strategic-based game.

We were sitting on a waiting room. In half an hour the game would begin and we would be transported to the battlefield. Seth was on my right deep in though. It was reassuring to know that I had a good mind to rely on besides mine.

At the start our chess matches had been boring and frustrating to say the least. Later on, they had been amusing. But little by little he climbed up to my level. One of these days I would taste defeat by the hands of someone that wasn't Sona.

Back to the game. We had to gather more than half of the thirty flags scattered around the battlefield. The Kings were worth nothing more than any other piece in this game. Taking out the King didn't win the game here.

It was still an objective, especially during this game. Taking out Sona or myself could send the team crashing down. At least I had Seth to take over if that happened, and I didn't know if Sona's Queen was that reliable. I doubted it, someone as good as Seth didn't come up just anywhere. He could make the team follow him maybe even better than myself. If I didn't know him, I would be worried that he was trying to steal my peerage.

He even had a Longinus user following him around. Leonardo was like a stubborn version of Liam. He followed Seth like a little brother but he would always try to deny anything of the sort. It was amusing, especially when my Queen would ask for help in training and the boy would comply immediately. Even more amusing was the joy that brightened his features every time Seth ruffled his hair.

'_Thirty flags… that's a big number for this type of game. That means a big battlefield. Lots of places to hide flags but not so big that it may make the game inconvenient. A city or town.'_ I theorized.

"It will probably be a city or town." All of them turned to me, Seth for his part just nodded and hummed, still thinking.

"We will all scatter and try to make half the city our 'territory'. Trina will go around in this area and search for the flags." They nodded. "We will patrol, if someone gets in it should still take time for them to get out. Also, Trina should be able to detect them. Dovray I want you to put traps all over the perimeter." The Pawn and Bishop nodded once again.

"If it's a city there's a good chance that there's at least one flag at the top of a tall building." Seth added. "I am the fastest one and the one with higher reserves to boost my flight. I will go there and see if there's anything at the top of any buildings. After that I'll join the perimeter." That's why it's better to have a second in command, they can fill up details on bigger plans when you don't have enough time.

"Try and see if you get a glimpse at any of them while there." I said.

"I could have Filo flying around in a smaller version, as a scout of sorts. She is already a known factor anyway." He said without being able to supress a faint bitter tone in his voice. While disappointing, no one could fault him for what he did during the terrorist attack. Saving lives was more important than an advantage during the games.

"Would it be possible to have smaller versions of the wolves scouting too?" I asked. We could cover a lot more with the wolves help.

"… probably, I could have three or four as scouts for long enough without exhausting myself." He said slowly. It would have been better to have all of them but we couldn't have Seth deplete his reserves just for scouting…

"Three will do." I said. Most of all I didn't want to know what would happen if they took out Seth. Maybe it would be like the Gremory team all over again or maybe something bad would happen. He nodded. "Lucie, you go with Iorek." She nodded and Iorek barked from the corner of the room.

"Take care of her, will you buddy?" Seth asked and received a couple more barks as an answer. I swear, sometimes it felt like my Queen was actually talking to the baby behemoth. All that time talking with the wolves may have something to do with that. "And you," He turned to everyone else with a serious expression. "If no one's near and you have trouble give me a call, I'll be there or at least sent back up as soon as possible." He said.

It was almost a fact, _'I don't know why I doubt it sometimes'_. He was almost a wolf himself. He was always worrying about everyone in the peerage. He always wanted to be there. It was like we were part of his pack.

People had started calling him the Ice Guardian after saving those people with his Ice shield and Filo. The Warden of Dragons after stopping the Red Dragon Emperor's rampage with his chains. They didn't know how right they were. Seth was our protector.

We were teleported to the field shortly after that. The game had begun.

[A Rating Game that everyone was interested in seeing has just started. The two strategy specialists of the Young Devils face each other in a strategic-based game.] _'It was definitely on purpose.'_ [Who will come out on top, will the Sitri team outsmart the Agares team or will the Warden subdue them as he did the Red One?] I heard someone chuckle besides me.

"You would think the announcer actually _wants_ me to chain Sitri down." He joked and I rolled my eyes. From the corner of my eyes, I saw the young ones, Liam, Lucie and Xander relax and chuckle with him. I wouldn't be surprised if Seth did that on purpose, he seemed to always try and take care of the them. I couldn't fault him. I had taken a similar attitude towards Lucie.

Seth summoned three wolves and Filo as soon as we appeared and took to the skies together with the Ice bird. He started giving us the information we needed about the place. He confirmed that we were in a city. We had started in the southern part almost outside of it. There was a skyscraper at the center of the city, that was our Queen's objective.

The others spread according to plan forming a circle with our starting point as center. Lucie and Iorek went directly to the East, Alan and Xander divided the North-East between themselves. With Seth going directly to the North on the sky, Liam and Brittney took the North-West while Dovray went to the West. The trap specialist would then start to place traps and detection spells all over the perimeter starting from there and swapping places with the others. Trina would run around using her Sacred Gear to locate the flags. I would stay in the starting point, we had to retrieve the flags to that point and someone had to guard.

[There's a building on the east side that by the looks of it should have a flag. Seek?] I heard Seth's voice on the communication device.

"I'm on my way, Trina inform if you find something, same for the others." I said and started flying over in the direction that my Queen pointed. It didn't take long for me to see it. A pantheon-like building, I would be surprised if there _wasn't_ a flag there, especially after the factions started uniting and everything else that was going on.

[Someone's going to the skyscraper too.] My Queen said. I knew he was not worried. I wasn't either, that should tell you something. If Sona didn't send her Queen together with herself then it was doubtful they would take Seth out.

[Found a flag.] Trina reported. I had arrived at the building already. The flag was not outside. How I envied the Pawn's Sacred Gear right that moment. [Got it, I'm moving to the base poin-]

[Shit!] Seth interrupted, I stopped on my tracks and I would bet every single one of the others did too. No one in this game should put Seth in a bad spot, that meant- [Alan, Xander, Lucie, Iorek, four of them are going to the East side. They are together.]

I continued searching. I needed to find the flag and fast, Once I had it back at the starting point, I would be able to go into meditative state and think clearly. What was Sona's plan?

[They avoided you guys… They… they actually went out of their way to avoid where you were…] Seth said slowly, he seemed shocked. He had a point, why would they avoid them. [Seek, I think they are going to hunt you…] That… didn't make sense. I had told Sona that Seth had a good head in his shoulders, he had proven his strength too. Why hunt me when they still would have to deal with Seth? Unless… she thought it was a bluff.

"She may have thought that you being my second-in-command was a bluff." I explained.

[No offense, Seek, but I almost hope they take you out so that I can make her pay for thinking that.] He said chuckling without humor, her voice turning colder. [There was a flag here, I'm going back. The one that was coming here gave up midway.] His voice sent chills down my spine. I pitied anyone that managed to take out someone on our team. We had seen and suffered an annoyed Seth a couple of times and it was terrifying, I didn't want to see him angry.

"I found this one too." I said. Finally, it just had to be in a corner of the basement behind shelves. _'No time to get annoyed'_, I told myself. And went on my way back to the starting point.

[And the Agares team collects the first flag of the match!] The announcer's voice was heard everywhere. It was probably the only thing we would hear. Anything else would be giving information that could affect the game, the extra comments wouldn't be broadcasted to us.

[Shouldn't Trina go over there Seek?] I heard Seth's worried voice.

"No, Trina, keep looking for flags. As you said, if they take me out it won't be that much of a drawback. The problem is if they start hunting us down one by one." I explained. "How are the traps going Dovray?"

[The West part is almost over, then I'll switch with Brittney.] He reported.

"Good job." I complimented, I thought it would take him longer. That time spent improving his circles must have helped more than I thought. "If they avoided Alan and Xander they must have a way of pinpointing us. At least in that group."

I had to thank Seth for having all of us practice flying without magic. This match would have been so much harder if we had to spend magic to fly or worse, move by feet.

[Seekvaira, they are near you.] Trina informed. I decided to put some magic to speed up. I just needed to get back to the starting point. Seth would be there. [They are coming for me. One of them is still after you, Seekvaira.] She informed this time. That was bad, if they managed to hunt down Trina, we would lose a great deal of strength for this match.

"Go to Dovray's traps." I said simply. It should be ok, the Pawn had enough magic in her to speed up in emergencies, even if not enough for actual spells.

[Roger that.]

[The Agares team gets another flag just after the Sitri team!]

[Where do you want me Seek?] Asked Seth. I considered it for a second.

"Come here so we can take this one out, then I will be able to guard the flags we got." I answered. Just as I finished saying that I froze where I was. Black flames formed a wall in front of me. "He is here."

"Yes, I am." I turned around to see Sona's Pawn. "Kaichou speaks highly of you, so we will have to take you out."

"You are supposed to have Absorption Line not Blaze Black Fire." I said, completely ignoring what he said.

"Grigori is a great ally." He said smirking. Externally I was impassive, internally I was really _really_ annoyed. I knew Azazel was helping Rias, but Sona too? What more had the Governor given the team.

"Be careful guys, they seem to have received help from Grigori. Sacred Gears most probably." I whispered and a second later I heard a growl that was most certainly from Seth. He hated this type of surprises. "Did Sona buy any more toys for you?" I told the Pawn in front of me. He seemed really protective of my old friend during the meetings. Maybe I could rile him up a little.

"Just every Vritra Sacred Gear there is." He said arrogantly. I suddenly felt the need to curse, which didn't happen often.

Absorption Line, forming lines between allies, opponents and even objects to absorb power. Blaze Black Fire, producing the cursed flames of Vritra himself. Delete Field, suppressing the power of others. Shadow Prison, used to restrain others. All put together were a very troublesome thing to deal with.

I really hoped the Pawn hadn't had the time to practice with them all, or at least be skilled or intelligent enough to use them all in battle. For now, he could control the flames and the lines, that was confirmed, but in a way, they were the least of my concerns. The prison could easily take one of us out of the game for a while, and the first two together with Delete field could be troublesome even for Seth.

'_Now that I think about him.'_

"And you think that will help you why exactly? I'm the Warden of Dragons you know?" Said my Queen.

The Pawn and I turned to see Seth sitting on a building watching us both. He had spoken on a carefree tone but his face right that moment would have made me run for my life if it was directed at me. He really hadn't liked the news apparently. That smile was just too unnerving.

"Go ahead, Seek." Seth told me. Light blue circles appeared over him and black flames formed on the Pawns hands. I was reminded of Walburga, and the state Seth had been in after the first battle. "Let's see how the Prison Dragon compares to the Welsh Dragon, shall we?" The grin on his face told me he would be ok.

"You don't need more tattoos, Seth." I said simply. I knew he would get what I meant. He didn't need more burdens to carry.

"Of course, Seek, of course."

I flew away hearing the battle behind me.

**[} Chapter End {]**

**Hey guys! How's it going?**

**Man, this game has me really nervous. I don't want to mess up with this. Seekvaira vs Sona is like the ultimate battle. In a way this should be a battle as epic as a Seth vs Issei or a Seth vs Sairaorg or a Seth vs Vali or… you get what I mean. I have to write this right or I will have to get a tattoo to symbolize my shame.**

**I don't have so much to talk about today, or maybe I'm forgetting things. We will see which is if a remember something by next chapter.**

**I do have something that I forgot the last two chapters though.**

**QUESTION: Did you re-read chapter 13? Why?**

**Now, the reason for this question is simple. My chapters have an average of 400 views and chapter 13 has almost 700 views. So, I have been wondering what the hell happened there? I would appreciate if someone has an answer to this.**

**See you.**


	17. Liberate Me II

**Thanks, Ashborn2271, GGPD, HeyRawj, Ragnas Bredvolts, robocoaster, Saint-Leiker, TheAbyssWatcher, HaMiroKar420, Rigald02, Raphaim and guests for the reviews.**

**I love you guys. Writing this list and seeing the number of people that deem my work good enough to write to me is really touching. You are all amazing.**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Highschool DxD, neither do I own any of the multiple resources that I will use for the story in the form of (but not limited to) references.

**Young Devil Gathering Arc – Liberate Me II**

**Seekvaira POV**

[And the Agares team gets another flag to safety!]

[Hey Seek, this guy is a pain.] I heard Seth say shortly after arriving to our starting point with the flag. [Those cursed flames hurt the wolves, and… well they are flames.] Troublesome. If Seth can't use the wolves or magic that just leaves Laura and Balance Breaker. The second is a definite no and the first… that's our only hidden card now.

"Can you deal with him just with the normal chains?" I asked. That would be the optimal thing to do.

[Yeah, but that will take time.] He said and everything went silent for a minute.

[King and Queen are here!] I heard Lucie scream in the communication device.

"Al-"

[The Knight ambushed me!] Xander shouted. I closed my eyes for a second.

[The Rook is here.] Said Liam in a roughed voice that told me that he was already fighting.

[Trina arrived here with the two Bishops behind her, they did something to deactivate my traps.] Dovray said in a worried tone. [The One-Piece Pawn is here!]

'_How did things go down so fast? They are everywhere, what-'_

[Everyone, stall! Give Seek time!] Seth ordered. Everyone accepted the order and I went into meditative state.

Seth was against a full Vritra equipped opponent. He would be safe and he could deal with him fast if needed.

Lucie and Iorek were against Sona and her Queen. Iorek was powerful but Sona was cunning, she was sure to find a way to deal with him and Lucie could do little to stop a King-Queen combo.

Xander was against a Knight. That wasn't too bad, he was a fine swordsman. He should be able to resist.

Dovray and Trina could resist the attack at least until Brittney arrived to back them up. But two Bishops with a Pawn for cover could be tricky. They could give some serious trouble, especially considering that the traps were out of the equation.

Liam was against a Rook. As far as we knew said Rook shouldn't give him more trouble than the one from Astaroth so that front was good.

This was an awfully aggressive strategy, especially for Sona and especially considering that half the fronts were ok for us and the other half were troublesome at worst, except for Lucie's. There was also the fact that we knew where all her pieces were.

'_What is your game Sona?'_

**[}-o-{]**

**Seth POV**

'_Why do I always end up with a troublesome fire-using opponent?'_

No use complaining though. Seemed like we had fallen in a trap of Sitri's. Everyone was being attacked and Seek would have to think for all fronts.

[Alan, go help Lucie. Seth send two wolves over there too.] Seek ordered. [I'll go over there, Trina.] She added.

'_Andy, Cissy. You heard her.'_ I thought-ordered. They barked an answer and I summoned them out of the sight of my opponent.

"Now, is this everything the Dragons have to throw at me?" I said dodging a stream of black flames. They were nothing compared to Incinerate Anthem, not even close. "I'm kind of disappointed." I commented.

"You're awfully cocky for someone that's only dodging." He said. He had some real problems keeping his cool, which was funny because he was in the peerage of someone like Sitri.

"Such a shame, Sitri could have done better than this. Did she lose a bet?" I asked. His King seemed to be something of a weak spot for the guy from what we saw in the meetings.

"Shut up!" Flames erupted everywhere. I jumped and swung my chains over me. He jumped out of the way still sending a stream of fire my way. I used one of the chains to drag me to a side. How much could he use that fire?

I swung again, this time horizontally from both sides. He jumped over them and I jumped and spun around sending the chains once again from over his head at him. He used the flames to push himself this time. This was going to be a pain.

[A Bishop and the Rook of team Agares, retire.] The world froze around me.

**[}-o-{]**

**Tsubasa Yura POV**

'_How did everything go so wrong?'_

We had just followed the plan. Let them separate. Isolate the King or Queen. Hunt down the others. Simple plan.

So, why?

I was shaking from head to toe. Cold sweat starting covering my body. My eyes wide and my mouth open in a horrified expression.

This wasn't how it was supposed to be.

I was supposed to be against a Pawn. A Pawn that defeated a Rook like me, but still a Pawn. Not this… this…

This monster.

It stood at double my height. Its whole being covered in sand except for those endless black pits that were supposed to be its eyes. Arms too long to be natural and claws that extended enough to scratch the floor beneath it.

[Balance Breaker: Desert Thirst]

It roared but I barely heard it, like it was far in the distance. The fear numbed my senses. My body felt cold, like death had a hand over it and was telling me I was a dead woman walking. I wanted to run but my body was petrified, my defeat was guaranteed anyway. It charged at me.

[The Rook of the Sitri team retires.]

**[}-o-{]**

**Liam POV**

[Liam!] I heard a voice. [Liam, come back here this instant!] It sounded familiar. [Little brother, wake up.] It said softly and the darkness around me cleared a little.

"Bro?" I asked, my voice shaking.

[I'm here, little bro.] The world cleared some more. Brown surrounded me. It was moving. Yellow. Brown. Grey. [Wake up, Liam, I need my brother awake.] And suddenly I felt like I was pulled out of a dream.

I looked around. Sand was all over the place. It flew around in the air and it took me a second to realized that it was flying around _me_. It was covering my body although I could not feel it. I felt so powerful. Nothing could stop me now. I could not wait until I told Lucie about-

Lucie.

Then I remembered. They had taken her out. They had attacked her. They had hurt her. My blood started to boil. Everything started blurring again.

[Liam, are you with me?] Seth's voice broke me from my thoughts again and my vision returned to normal.

"I-I hear you, bro." I said, shakily.

[Did you unlock your Balance Breaker?] He said calmly. Wasn't he on a fight too?

"Y-yeah, I think s-so." I answered all the same.

[That's great. I'm proud of you little bro.] He said in a cheery voice. There it was, that warm feeling in my chest as every time he complimented me. I was sure Lucie felt the same, she always beamed when he complimented her. Lucie… [Now, stay focused and if you can turn it off.] He said.

I closed my eyes. My thoughts were all over the place. I wanted to attack something, destroy everything, absorb their power, dry everyone. But I focused on my brother's voice. He was speaking softly to calm me down, it was working. Little by little my mind came back to normal.

When I opened my eyes, the sand was not around anymore. My everything felt heavy.

"It's off." I said in a weary voice.

[Good job. Now, can you go and lend a hand to Trina and the others?] It was Seekvaira who talked this time. I nodded even though no one could see me and started moving.

"Roger that."

My brother still needed me. He would avenge Lucie anyway. I was sure someone would suffer his wrath and that was scarier than anything I could do to them.

**[}-o-{]**

**Lucie POV**

"King and Queen are here!" I screamed while blocking a Water attack with a barrier. Iorek was fighting the Queen while I blocked the King's Water magic. This was bad. But the others would send back up.

Then the others started getting attacked too. I was getting nervous. But big brother would send his wolves. Everything would be ok. He had our backs.

He always did.

"A behemoth of all things!" Shouted their Queen. _'That's our puppy.'_ I thought with a smile.

"Tsubaki!" Shouted the King. "Do it, now!" What was their plan? Then a giant blue circle appeared in front of Sitri, but it wasn't targeting me, or Iorek for that matter. It was targeting her Queen. I had a second to be confused before a dragon head made of water shot out of the circle.

Then the Queen put up a mirror in front of it. I had another second to be confused because of that action before I remembered what she could do. Another second and I had an idea of their plan. But I was two seconds too late.

The dragon was reflected by the mirror. It came charging at Iorek and me with twice the force it had been shot.

I had another second to think. A hundred things went through my mind. I was useless. Once again, I was useless. I hadn't done anything yet. Big brother hadn't complimented me yet. I was useless.

'_No.'_ Said a voice in my head that sounded like big brother. He would always scold me if I thought like that. But I couldn't help it this time.

'_I'm sorry.'_

**[}-o-{]**

**Seekvaira POV**

I was cursing inside. Lucie and Iorek were already out. As I thought, Sona must have come up with something to take both of them out by surprise. I didn't have the time to think about what it could be.

Liam had apparently gone berserk and taken out their Rook. The good thing was that Seth got him to calm down without even been there. That was a boon.

Now we just had to take out the Bishops and the Pawn on this side and then we could take care of the rest. But first.

"Alan, turn around and help Xander. Seth, vanish the wolves." I said. My voice sounded strained. Lucie… _'No, not right now'_. I frowned. We had a game to win, for Lucie.

I was getting closer to where the others where. The Bishops and Pawn were stalling. But what was their plan? This was a five against three. There was nothing they could do. They were barely staying alive and running away. But they wouldn't be able to go further.

I would slow them down and that would be it.

[I am with the others.] Liam informed.

[Sorry, boss.] Came the tired voice of Xander. I felt the need to curse again.

[The Agares team is falling apart, this time is a Pawn who is taken out!]

[The Bishops are using a strange circle together.] Dovray informed, he sounded tense. [It's black.]

[There's a circle like that under the Pawn here, get out of there!] Seth shouted.

I was already seeing the shadow of the circle in the distance. I turned around as fast as I could.

**[}-o-{]**

**Momo Hanakai POV**

"You know what to do Gen-chan!" I said happy to see Genshirou again. He nodded with a serious face and put his hands up. Soon the other team was trapped in a dome of dark energy.

Shadow Prison. We had been saving this for a situation when we truly needed it. Genshirou wasn't as skilled with this Sacred Gear as with the flames or the lines. A prison, specially one as big as this one, took him everything he had. Especially considering he had to entertain the Queen before coming.

[One of the Sitri team's Pawns retires.]

'_You did amazingly Gen-chan' _I thought to myself. I turned to Ruruko and Reya. All of us nodded.

"Sorry, but that's game over for you." Ruruko said playfully to the ones inside the Prison. A Bishop and three Pawns. Better than Kaichou estimated.

"So, this was your plan from the start." Said a new voice. We started grinning like mad women when the figure revealed herself. The King was inside the Prison too.

"Yep, seems like this time is a victory to Kaichou, Agares-sama." Said Ruruko still in her playful voice. I couldn't fault her. This was way too good.

"Kaichou, King, Bishop and three Pawns." Informed Reya.

[Great job, girls.] She actually sounded happy. That should tell you how good this was.

**[}-o-{]**

**Tsubaki Shinra POV**

[The Knight of the Agares team falls, what will they do? They are falling one by one!]

It had not been long after Reya's report that we heard that announcement. Ruruko had gone to assist Meguri. Everything was going according to Kaichou's plan. I turned to look at her face. She seemed happy too.

"Good job, Megu-"

[The Knight of the Sitri team retires this time!] It was like a bucket of ice-cold water was thrown on us. He was still in the game. Even if everyone was out. He was still dangerous. The man that subdued the Red Dragon Emperor's Juggernaut Drive.

We kept moving but we didn't go far. It wasn't even a minute when suddenly a shadow stood in front of us and I froze.

Dangerous was an insult to this man. I had stood before some of the most powerful people in the Underworld being the Queen of a Maou's sister. I had seen Leviathan-sama, Lucifer-sama, even Beelzebub-sama and Asmodeus-sama. Even with their quirks and strange personalities, they had an aura of power.

That was the aura of the man that stood before me. _'Make the wrong move,'_ it seemed to tell me, _'Do it and die.'_ I readied myself to summon a mirror. He lifted his chains subtly and Sona beside formed tendrils of water. His frown went almost unnoticed.

He whispered something. Probably informing the others. Stupid if you ask me. They were all trapped, what could they do. The plans had worked, every single one of them. We had taken out the beast and the healer. We had trapped or taken out most of the team and the most powerful one was in front of us. No matter how powerful, he couldn't just jump at us.

"_We'll ignore the flags." _Kaichou had said. _"Meguri, collect one. The others will stay together and go near their territory. Confirm their positions and if you can't take them out draw them close to each other."_

When they had gotten near their 'territory' we had found that the King was near too, with a little device Kaichou had prepared in case of big battlefields. Then it was decided that the group would hunt her. That was until we sense their 'searcher'. We didn't know what she could do.

So, we sent Saji after the King. To buy us time to continue the plans. The others would hunt down the Pawn or draw her to the others. In case they grouped too fast we could always trap them. As we had done.

Meguri would hunt down the rest after her part, with the others if they were still standing. And then we-

[The remaining Pawn of the Sitri team retires!]

I looked at him stunned. _'How-?'_

"You think I have to be there to take you out?" He asked. He looked amused.

'_The bird? Surely they would have had time to alert us if that was the-'_

[A Bishop if the Sitri team retires!]

My jaw dropped on its own. He started laughing.

"You know what's the problem with your King?" He asked, as if Sona wasn't right next to me. My eyes widened. He smirked. "It's that you never expect the unexpected. You drive yourself too much by what you know. There's also the fact that even with the gears added to the Pawn, you still lack power."

[The last Bishop of the Sitri team retires!]

I was speechless. I wanted to say a hundred things, ask a hundred questions. But all I could manage was to stare at him and open and close my mouth repeatedly.

"I know that's not your King." He said pointing at 'Sona'. "You thought we would fall for an illusion? Please. Especially considering you already used that trick." He actually looked offended. "Also, did you know? Normal flight, magical flight and Wind magic make for a hell of a combo when you need to move fast. And…" He said dropping his voice with a grin that send chills down my spine. "We can make illusions too."

[Seekvaira is here!] I heard Sona's voice from our communication spell. My blood froze as he raised his chains, still grinning.

"You attacked my little sister." He said, a voice colder than the Ice spells that formed above him. I put a mirror in front of the spears that came my way. He swung his chains to the side pulling himself to a post and continued shooting at me. I moved the mirror reflecting everything.

He jumped and swung the chains from above towards me. I tried to jump to the side but the chains seemed to come alive and curved their way to my legs. One missed but the other cut my right thigh.

He was swinging the chains again. I went to pull my naginata from my personal storage space. An Ice spear cut my left leg.

"So disappointing, this is everything the other allrounder can do?" His voice told me that he was truly disappointed. I frowned. But his chains were still coming, I blocked with my pole. Or tried, the chains moved again. One sped up and the other slowed. The lantern wrapped around the naginata and he pulled. I didn't lose my weapon but my guard was ruined. The scythe cut my right arm.

I followed the scythe with my eyes for a second, trying to guess where it could come next. The other end of the chain still wrapped on my naginata. Another pull. I looked to the front just on time to see that he had pulled himself up to me and kicked me in the stomach.

"Chains are pretty awesome don't you think?" I blocked the scythe that he now held in one hand instead of swaying at the end of the chain. "Your opponent has to follow three constantly moving targets. Are you following them?"

The lantern hit me on my left arm and send me to the floor. _'When did that unwrap from the pole?'_ The scythe cut my leg. I looked at him, and the lantern and the scythe were by his side. He was grinning.

"And that's not even counting magic." He commented and my eyes darted around. That second was all he needed to wrap his chains around my legs. The wounds had slowed me and my reaction time down. "Got you." My body flew on the air and I was suddenly falling at a high speed.

And then all went black.

**[}-o-{]**

**Sona Sitri POV**

[The Queen of the Sitri team retires! The Agares team has turned the game around!]

'_How?'_ Was everything I could think while looking at the only person that had beat me on chess besides my mother. How had they done it? They were trapped or out. That was how it was supposed to be.

We had forced them to a trap. The group had completed their objective and trapped most of the team. Saji had bought time and separated the Queen from the others. We just had to take the rest out one by one.

I could only stare at Seekvaira in disbelief.

"How did he do it?" I asked, curious but at the same time frustrated. "How did he take out everyone while he was with my Queen?"

"My pieces are not the only ones in my team." That was her only answer. I just looked at her. _'What does she mean?'_ Familiars couldn't help in Rating Games. Did one of them have an avatar type Sacred Gear? There was that Pawn that we weren't sure. The one with the spear. It could be. Maybe the new one?

My thoughts were interrupted by a growl. I turned around to see a big black wolf glaring at me. It took me a second to notice that it was made of ice. _'Of course.'_

If he could make a bird why not something else. But we didn't know he could control those from a distance. How was he able to do that?

More growls joined the first. There was one on each side of me and one behind.

"You are clever, Sitri." Said a voice. _His _voice. I looked at Seekvaira and he was by her side already. "Really clever, but you are weak."

"_When there's too much difference it doesn't matter how good your strategy is."_

He had told me. When we asked him who he thought would win the game between me and Rias. I didn't want to believe it then but he was right. And he was proven right again now.

"Your problem is that you don't value strength." He continued. "Strength gives a clever person more options, more options to a mind like yours and Seekvaira's… I think you are smart enough to see what I mean." He said with a smirk.

"Now, isn't it sad. The King alone at last. _Again_." This time it was Seekvaira who talked.

"Tell me Seek, what is a common strategy for Scramble Flag?" Said the Queen while it started to walk slowly in a circle around me. Like a wolf circling a prey.

"Separate to cover more area in order to have a safe zone and collect the flags faster and safer." It couldn't be. They-

"And which is a good counter to that?" Continued the Queen, he was smirking. He knew I knew.

"Keep your group together and take down the other team one by one." They had read us. They had anticipated our movements.

"Of course, we did." Said the Queen, as if reading my thoughts. He probably could read my expression. It was far from the impassive mask that I usually wore.

"We didn't and still don't know how you did most of what you did." Said Seekvaira. "But we knew your idea. The summoning of your Pawn was a surprise, I'll admit."

"But I was still in the game." The Queen continued. I would have been annoyed that they were mocking me. But at the moment I was too afraid. Afraid of the man and the pack of wolves that surrounded me. That aura was not a normal thing. "You were confident once you thought I was the only one in the game. And even if Seek hadn't escaped the Prison, I would have been able to take you all out. I did do it after all. You could have had more chances Sitri."

"You just had to take out Seth, and you would have. Not a certain victory. But you would have had actual chances." Seekvaira looked amused. "Your second mistake was taking out Lucie, my Bishop."

"That little girl is like a sister to me you know?" His voice seemed to be an Ice spell of its own, same with his stare. His expression was carefree but his eyes told the truth, they could freeze fire. "So, you forced me to hunt you down."

"So, do you have something to say, Sona?" Asked Seekvaira.

"Yes." I said simply. "You talk too much." And then I summoned a circle that I had been preparing during their speech. My biggest Water dragon charged directly at the Queen and a wolf. Or would have. A dome of Ice surrounded me. Its walls so thick that the only thing my spell did was fill it with water. I was suddenly trapped in a bubble of ice filled with water.

'_This won't take me out.'_ They would have to wait a lot for me to drown. Being a Devil had its perks. Or so I thought. But the inside of the dome was suddenly covered in circles. All of the shot Ice spears at me, the water slowing my movements. I closed my eyes. I had lost.

**[} Chapter End {]**

**Hey guys! How's it going?**

**Shit, this chapter was a pain.**

**Now, I know this chapter and the whole game is not what people wanted or expected. I'm sorry to disappoint. I really am. I spent days working my brain to the ground but I couldn't come up with something better. I'm just no intelligent enough to make a good match between these two Kings.**

**Make sure you send me your hate reviews.**

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**Yeah, I'm leaving the Gremory vs Agares for last. You know, save the best for last and all that.**

**See you.**


	18. Take My Hand

**Thanks to TheAbyssWatcher, GGPD, mnorsyafiq92, faithful despair, Ragnas Bredvolts, Rigald02, robocoaster, Rodvek97, Ashborn2271, HeyRawj, Saint-Leiker, HaMiroKar420 and Tobi is a Gooder Boy for the reviews.**

**Oh man, you guys have no idea how much these reviews meant to me. I was a nervous wreck right when I published last chapter and as the positive reviews started to appear, I lost a really big weight from my shoulders.**

**I'm still sorry for all those people that were disappointed though.**

**About the poll for the Bael vs Agares match, you guys are assholes. I had to see the poll be equal votes for everything for the longest time. But essentially there weren't many votes so I decided to just do whatever the hell I want. You guys are here because you like what I write anyway (as much as I don't get why).**

**Anyway, that was a long ass note, it's been some time since I did that at the start of the chapter. On with the chapter.**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Highschool DxD, neither do I own any of the multiple resources that I will use for the story in the form of (but not limited to) references.

**Young Devil Gathering Arc – Take My Hand**

**Seth POV**

"How are you feeling guys?" I asked entering the hospital room where Lucie, Xander and Alan waited.

We had already visited Iorek before coming here, he was kept in another room by himself. The oversized puppy was getting too big sadly. His ego had been hurt but everything else seemed to be alright. He would be begging for more training soon. Of that I was sure.

I took a second to look around the room. Alan and Xander looked much like the baby behemoth. They were licking their wounded egos.

"We'll have to up the training. That was humiliating." Alan said after a moment. Xander just nodded. Determination burning in their eyes.

"That's good." I said cheerfully. "Because little bro here," I put a hand over Liam's head. "will need some help getting his Balance Breaker under control, you two will be perfect." Suddenly they didn't look so sure anymore.

Then I turned to Lucie. She looked miserable. All the cheerfulness left me. I walked to her bed and sat beside her. I hadn't seen her like that since she had taken my metaphorical hand when I went to recruit them. It hurt my heart more than holy fire to see the light leave her eyes.

"I was useless." She said in a whisper that only I heard. It was like she was squashing my heart in her little hands with each word. "I'm sorry big bro, I was useless." She continued, tears falling from her eyes. "You should have left me there."

I put my palm over her forehead, my fingers intertwining with her blond bangs. I lifted her head softly so that she was looking at me in the eyes. Her eyes were red, she had been crying for a while.

"Don't be silly." I said just as softly. "You are my little sister, no matter what." I gave her a warm smile. "I'm the one that should be sorry, I wasn't there to have your back. Some big brother I am." I said self-deprecatingly. Then I lifted my hand and flicker her brow. "And what have I told you about saying that you are useless."

"But-"

"No buts." I interrupted. I stared at her sky-blue eyes. "You are not useless. Now, I think your big sis has some words to tell you." I turned to see Seek right behind me. We exchanged nods. I stood up to leave.

"Are you going there?" Seek asked me while she took my place next to Lucie.

"Yeah, do you want me to wait?" I asked her. This was something she was part of after all.

"My little sister needs someone here." She said looking at the petite Bishop.

"You don't have to give me excuses, you know?" I asked with a smirk. She turned to me with a scowl in her face. "You know that she would have company all the same." I said ignoring her expression and pointing at a bashful Liam with my thumb. She looked away with a little pink dusting her cheeks. "I don't understand why you are like that, honestly." I shook my head.

I looked around. Everyone was tired, or hurt, or both. This game had been more difficult than we thought. We needed more strength. I needed to be stronger. To hell with walls in my progress, I just had to smash them with more training. Seek wouldn't be happy, but it didn't matter. We were up against monsters like Sairaorg Bael and Issei Hyoudou. We couldn't stay like this.

"I'm glad everyone's ok." I said not looking at anyone in particular. "What do you say we go and enjoy a night out celebrating after we are done here?" How many times had it been? How many times had I asked that question with a different meaning in my head? Everyone seemed to be in, even the ever serious Seek and Alan. We had earned some fun. "I'll come back in a minute." And with that I left the room.

I walked the halls of the hospital looking for another room. It didn't take much time. There were only so many rooms where several patients were kept together. Those were only used for Rating Games and the only one today was ours. The Underworld wanted everyone to witness the new generation's power, even if it wasn't as popular as official Games.

I knock at the door. No need to be impolite, they won't be eager to talk to me.

"Come in." I heard the same commanding voice that I had heard just an hour ago and went inside.

"Hey, good to see everyone is doing fine." I said with a smile on my face.

"Came to gloat so soon?" Said the Vritra Pawn with so much venom in his voice that it would have affected me had I not gotten used to it courtesy of an ex-holy fire wielder.

Said wielder gave me a smug huff in my head when I broadcasted that thought to the souls. Walburga was a really weird person. The huff this time was an annoyed one. I ignored the resentful Pawn and turned to the King. I noticed that everyone had different expression going from surprise to some displeased ones, even a bashful one from the Rook.

"My little bro did a number on you, didn't he?" I told said bluenette. She looked away. "I'm sorry if he went too far, he had just unlocked his Balance Breaker and couldn't control it. I'll make sure that he can keep reign over it the next time he uses it in a game." I said while bowing to her. Thank Maou I had studied a bit of Japanese culture. Now everyone seemed surprised.

"I appreciate the gesture." The Rook said with a small smile. "No harm done though, so don't worry."

"Is everyone in your team ok?" Asked the Knight.

"As ok as they can after being beaten as they were, the rest are just a little tired." I said with a polite smile.

"I'm guessing you didn't come for this exchange." Said Sitri with an expression and tone that were really similar to Seek's. It was a bit strange to be honest, they could pass as twins if only they looked remotely similar.

"I would have come all the same but it's true that I came for another reason." I said and sat in front of her bed. "I'm here to talk about your dream."

The atmosphere went cold and depressing really fast after that statement. Everyone looked down. It was understandable, they couldn't dream of beating Bael, and there was little value in a victory over Glasya-Labolas, they were already last place in everyone's minds. Their dream depended in them showing strength, and they were failing.

"Even if you managed a meaningful victory nothing would have been smooth with the higher ups against you." I explained, everyone seemed to pay attention to me.

Why was I the one that always had to do the speaking. That was probably another reason as to why Seek didn't come. Damn her, always leaving these things to me. I really had to learn how to tell her no.

"They would have stood in your way with all they had. Your sister, Lord Lucifer and Gremory wouldn't have been able to support you. That would have been a political nightmare for all parts involved." I continued. Sitri looked down.

"I know that." She clenched her sheets as her hands balled in fits. "I know that, but a victory would have helped." She was frustrated.

"Are you here just to tell us that our dream was impossible from the beginning?" Said an equally frustrated but much more vocal male Pawn.

"No, I'm here to tell you that your dream is quite possible." Sitri turned to me so fast I worried she might have snapped her neck. Hope shone in her eyes, so much that it clashed with her usual cold demeanor. "I talked with Seek, we both see the value of your dream, of your school. We also talked with her father quite a bit."

We had spent all the time between our Game against Astaroth and this Game thinking about it. I fully supported the project Sitri envisioned and Seek could see the true value of it. It not only would help give low- and mid-class devils more prospects for the future. It would also help high-class devils discover potential allies, potential peerage members in between the commoners. Much like Bael had done.

That school would be a great addition to the Piece Market as it was called. Not only would there be Free Pieces but there would also be Potential Pieces. People that did well in the school could find their way into a peerage that caught their eye (if they did the same with the King that is) and climb their way up if they were good enough.

Even if they didn't manage to climb to high-class, they still would be better than by themselves. Being under a King had a lot of advantages. First, it was easier to get into contact with humans to get contracts, thus earning a living and possibilities to climb the ladder. Second, you would have political back up in case you needed it. Third, a high-class Devil had connections that a normal Devil wouldn't dream of having.

That had been how Seek got to keep Taming Sari. That had been how our King had gotten her hands in a detailed book on Senjutsu. Hell, that had been how I got into contact with Lord Beelzebub and later Lord Azazel both of them giving me a lot of advice on my Sacred Gear.

The conclusion of all of this was predictable.

"We agreed that we will support your cause." I finished. Everyone's eyes widened and jaws fell. "Lord Agares should be able to get the support of the Great King and act as middleman at the same time. It's possible that you will have to build the school in neutral territory and listen to some of the higher up's stupidity. But your dream can and most probably _will_ come true." After that I just waited for the message to sink in.

"Is… Is that true?" Sitri asked, or maybe it was better to say _begged_, me.

"Yes, maybe we can exchange some words about what we think will be the objective of the school. Depending on how we explain it we may be able to get the higher ups off your back." I explained. I glanced at the Pawn. "But you may want to keep him far, far away from that conversation."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" He shouted outraged.

"Exactly that." I pointed out. "If you can't keep a cool head then you are no good in a negotiation." I said and he deflated. "I know you are practically half dragon with all those gears but you will have to control yourself. At least until you are strong enough to ignore everyone else."

"That's Seekvaira's dream." Sitri blurted out. I grinned at her.

"The freest group in the world." Was all I said, she nodded.

"Thank you, truly." She said bowing slightly.

"I should freeze you and your Queen." I said, my tone turning cold. "You hurt my little sister." I stared at her, she paled and started to sweat a little. "But I think I did enough during the Game and your miserable thoughts after it and before my speech." She relaxed.

"Well, that's everything I got to say." I stood up and stretched my arms. "Maybe we can meet up and discuss more about your plans soon?" Sitri nodded. "And maybe a game of chess would be nice too. Seek has been dying to play against someone that isn't me and I want to see how I stand against her longtime rival." I smirked at her and she gave me a small smile. I counted that as a victory, she had regained her impassive expression after all.

"That sounds like a good plan." She said. "Thanks for coming and… for the support." She continued bowing her head.

"Don't mention it. I told you remember? I want to see your dream come true." I told her. "I also told you to never be ashamed of it so lift your head." She did so, still with a small smile on her face. "Have a nice day everyone, I hope you get out of here soon." And with that and a general wave for everyone I left.

**[}-o-{]**

"Come again?" I asked.

"Zephyrdor won't participate on the Rating Games anymore. His loss against Sairaorg broke his will to fight. It's official." Seek said. She seemed to have the same expression as me, a conflict between being amused and being annoyed.

Now you may be wondering. 'Why would you be annoyed?' That's easy. Glasya-Labolas not participating messed up with the matching of the remaining Games.

Now we would be up against Bael right after his Game against Gremory, which was due in a couple of days. Then there would be a pause and Bael would go up against Sitri while we would have a match with Gremory.

It was sad, in a way. Of six renowned heirs only four remained. One became a traitor and the other broke after a loss. Pathetic.

The Gremory team was starting to scare us in the same level as Bael. They seemed to finally have a full peerage. A Valkyrie of all things had joined. I honestly don't know why I was even surprised at that point. It was also being said that the Red One had broken the game by being able to switch which promotion he wanted whenever the hell he wanted.

Honestly, what an annoying opponent. And with each day passing there were more chances of more bullshit coming up. I just wanted to have our game and get it over with before one of them evolved to ultimate-class or something.

"On the bright side, we finally got permission for that." Said started conversation again while moving a piece. We were having quite the match right that moment. _'Maybe today will be the day.'_

"That's great, finally got someone to verify their story?" I asked with my own move.

"Yes, the improved relationship with the Youkai faction helped a lot. Senjutsu is quite the lie detector if used properly." She explained. She moved.

"Please, I don't want to be on debt with that group." I moved. Then she moved and I paused. I felt the need to curse. I was cornered. "So close." I muttered. "Anyway, how are we going to do this?" I asked organizing my side of the board again.

"It was close indeed." She acknowledged. "We'll go over there and have a chat with her. It's sad that from fifteen people only one was innocent." Seek said.

"Yeah well. I'm guessing the good ones stayed away from the bastard." My King scowled at me and I waved her off. We were alone, a little cursing wouldn't kill anyone. "Do you think…?" I left the question there while summoning my chains and lifting the lantern.

"She did use fire, so maybe. That would be pretty good although I wouldn't hold my breath." She started the game.

"No need to be so positive, Seek." I rolled my eyes and made my move.

After a while the circle in her study lit up and two people appeared standing there. Sona Sitri and Tsubaki Shinra. Both of them using the uniform of their school. They did take their school rather seriously. I didn't want to think what it would be like when it was really 'their' school.

"Welcome, Sona, Miss Shinra." Said Seek.

"Welcome Miss Sitri, Miss Shinra." I greeted.

"Sona and Tsubaki is fine Seekvaira, Seth." Said the King and the Queen nodded. We nodded in response. Seek made her move. Sona seemed interested.

"Prepare yourself to be amused, I haven't been able to break her winning streak since ever." I said annoyed. Seek gave me a smug smirk. _'One of these days.'_

Sona and Tsubaki did as told and took a seat on the side of the board. We proceeded to discuss the school matters between ourselves. The Sitri duo admitted that they had been so absorbed on the idea of building their own school that they hadn't stopped to think of the real possibilities for the graduates.

It was funny considering that Sona was considered to be a calm and serious person. Although, they did have a pretty in-depth knowledge about how a school worked. Apparently, they had leeched that out of the school in the human world that they attended to. That actually made her decision to _go_ there in the first place much more reasonable. They had done a pretty thorough research about all that could be needed.

Once we explained to them the addition to the Piece Market and the very real possibility of giving low- and mid-class devils work in the Rating Games even if it wasn't competing. They were quite interested in that last part as they hadn't thought about that.

We were kind of disappointed really. They had thought of building a school like the one high-class attended and that was not good at all. It sounded like a noble idea, giving the lower classes the same education as the higher ones. The problem was that that school was for future Kings. Lower classes couldn't be Kings right off the bat. That type of school wouldn't help.

So, we changed their plans for ones that involved education for every other type of Piece. We would train future peerage members. We were in the middle of discussing education for Pawns when something incredible happened.

"Yes!" I jumped out of my seat much to the amusement of the three girls. "You can look at me like that all you want. It's a draw! A fu-" I froze at Seek's stare. "A draw! Just you wait Seek, I'm going to beat you. The day is nearing, brace yourself." She shook her head.

"You seem… excited with this result." Sona said with an amused smile on her face fixing her glasses.

"You don't give me that little lady. Try yourself, I want to see that easy win that you seem to think this could be." I dared her. She accepted.

And like that we continued discussing subjects and prospects for the school. I was honestly more focused on how Seek was wiping the floor with Sona. Apparently, she didn't have someone to give her competition in quite a while. She had gone rusty. Now it was my turn to look at her with amusement as she fumed on how it could be.

"What was that?" I asked with a smug look. She gave me a glare that would have scared me if I wasn't used to Seek's. "She has the same glare. I'm immune, sorry." I said even more amused. She fumed some more. Tsubaki was staring in disbelief at the board. Obviously, her King losing a match as not something that happened often.

"Sona…" She said in a low voice. Her King turned to her. "You may want to avoid a game against Seth." She commented. I saw Sona blanch and I stared at her in confusion.

"Why?" I asked slowly, not quite catching where that was coming from.

"Sona made a deal with her parents to avoid an arranged marriage. If someone beats her in chess then they will marry her." I blinked. I blinked again.

"So, I guess Sona's going to chicken out of that game we had talked about." I commented lightly. I saw Seek's eyebrow twitch and had to do some serious effort to suppress a grin.

"Never." Was all Sona said and we started a game. The talk about the school had been forgotten. Our audience was paying rapt attention to the game now. The whole time Tsubaki had a worried face and Seek's eye twitched from time to time. It was amusing. After a while I smirked and turned to Seek. She stared at me.

"Do you mind ending the game for me? I think I'm getting a headache." The three of them blinked at that. Then the Sitri duo sighed in relief and Seek's stare was gone, she did scowl at me though. I was winning, but if someone else finished the game then it didn't matter. I couldn't help it and started laughing. "You actually thought I was serious? Not that I have something against you Sona, but I think it will be a while before I marry." She gave me a weary smile.

"I'm glad about that Seth, but next time explain your plan beforehand please. I think I lost a percentage of my lifespan there." I just kept laughing. I did keep an eye on Seek while everything was going one. She seemed troubled. Silly girl.

'_Just you wait'_. The day was nearing indeed. Brace yourself, Seekvaira. Who cared about chess?

**[}-o-{]**

**Seekvaira POV**

Seth and me walked inside the building. We were finally meeting her. I should have been focused in the recruiting. But I couldn't. I couldn't keep my mind off what had happened with Sona. I was being stupid, I hated being stupid.

He wasn't like that and most importantly, he wouldn't anyway. I had seen it. His glances. Little detains here and there, smiles sent my way, all that time catching up to me in chess, all that time planning together. It wasn't his duty as Queen, he overdid it. One could argue that he overdid everything he put his mind on.

But I knew.

That smile when the game ended in a draw was much more than it seemed. He made his smile pass as smugness. I made my smile pass as amusement. But we both knew each other better than that. Both our smiles hid the fact that we were content. It meant so much more than it seemed. We were like that. We ended in a draw. We were equals.

Sona was not what worried me. I knew Seth enough to know that he wouldn't go around every girl that met his eye. Trina and Brittney proved that. Lucie didn't count, we knew that.

The problem was the wait.

We both were waiting. There was no way we could do anything with a calm mind while I had the cloud of a marriage contract over my head. I had a foot and a half out of that situation, we knew. But until it was official that would hang there, neither being able to forget that fact.

And we were impatient. I had seeing it. Sometimes he would invite everyone out for dinner after a good practice, or when we won the matches. I knew those were meant for the two of us. The day was nearing indeed.

"Seek." His voice broke me from my thoughts. "I know, I truly do. But we have business to do." How did he do it? More than once he seemed to read right through my impassive face as if it wasn't there. I sometimes wondered if he was just incapable of seeing the mask.

"I know." I took a second to try and organize my thoughts, I didn't have much luck. "What do you think of her?"

"Not the best addition if you ask me." He said honestly. "But with training we should be able to get her up to our level. It won't be for next Game though. I hope she can do something against Gremory but that may be hopeful thinking."

And there it was, blunt honesty. But that was better. He was positive when it was indeed possible but he was not one to blatantly lie to make someone feel better. Being a normally negative (though I preferred to be called realistic) person I would always see the worst case, it helped with my plans. He balanced me quite well without being stupidly positive.

"Good morning, we are here to see prisoner number 87." I said once we came upon the desk that was right at the end of the entrance hall after a couple of doors.

The officer behind the desk looked at us and then through some papers in front of him. Then talked through a device. We didn't need to introduce ourselves. Officers had the duty to know the heads and future heads of high-class families, especially the ones that dealt with the public. You couldn't have the receptionist insult a high-class Devil because they didn't know.

And even if they didn't, he would have recognized us from the games anyway. We were starting to get our names know for real this time. People were comparing us to Bael and Gremory. Seth was especially famous.

I was worried certain magical girl would want him in her show. That could be a… troublesome situation, to say the least.

"Of course, follow officer Ziminiar." He said finally, pointing at the officer on his right who nodded at us.

"Right this way Ms Agares, Mr. Seth." He said motioning for us to follow him.

"Maybe I should get a last name or something." My Queen commented with a smirk. It was true, him not having one had not been a problem until people started having to address him formally.

"You have something in mind?" I asked curious. His smirk widened.

"I was thinking about Jerome because, wouldn't it be hilarious to have a name that means 'sacred name' being a Devil that wields souls of dead foes?" He said, mirth dancing in his eyes. I had to suppress a very unlady-like snort and just gave him a smile. Seth Jerome, didn't sound so bad. Didn't sound bad at all.

"I guess." He smiled at me. He knew it was basically an approval. "We will add that to your files later."

"We are here." Announced our guide standing in front of a door. We entered the room and it instantly lit up. It looked like an interrogation room from the human world. Cuffed to the table in the middle was the girl we came to see.

A beautiful young girl of average height with long red hair in a hime cut and red eyes. The only one in her peerage that was an innocent forced to act against her will by her King. Ayumi Fujimura, the fire user ex-Rook of Diodora Astaroth.

"Good morning." We both said and took a seat in front of the Rook.

"I already told my story." She said looking down. Her will seemed to be damaged if the clouded eyes were to be believed. But that didn't matter, we had dealt with this kind of things before. Or it was better to say, my Queen had.

"We know, we are here because you have been deemed innocent." He said plain and simple. The girl looked up to stare at him. "It's true, you are being released today." The girl kept her eyes traveling between him and me for a few seconds. We could see the gears turning inside her head.

"You are Seekvaira Agares, and you… you are not an officer." She said simply and Seth smirked, I resisted my own smirk from showing. He would never have accepted her if she was stupid, neither would I for that matter.

"Seth Jerome," He introduced himself with his new last name for the first time. "Seekvaira Agares's Queen. We are here to recruit you." I would have said that was a blunt way of saying it. But he had done basically all the recruiting of my group, so who was I to say something. He was much better with these things than I was. That's why I always left the talking to him if it was possible.

"And I should follow you because…?" She asked dubiously.

"Because life as a non-servant is difficult for fighters like you. Well, you could try looking for a spot in security somewhere, but who would hire someone that was part of a terrorist group. Nobody will care that you were deemed innocent or that you were forced." He explained. The girl frowned more and more as she heard him.

"So, you are saying that I have no choice." She said, her shoulders slumping.

"Nothing like that. I'm just saying that it will be difficult. But why let it be difficult on purpose. You could come with us. All our group has been happy so far. The only thing we ask from the peerage is that they pursue our same goal. Freedom." She perked up at the last part.

"Freedom?" She asked, her gaze switching from him to me again.

"You may have forgotten, but Seek wants to be the freest woman in the world." He explained. "And we will stand right beside her, as the freest people in the world. Nobody will be able to tell us what to do. We just have to be strong enough." He let that message sink leaning back in his chair.

"…" Ayumi thought about our proposal for a long time. We could wait. It would have been nice to have a chess board to pass the time though. "If I don't accept. What would be the best thing for me to do?" She asked Seth.

"As I said, a normal job would be difficult to say the least. But you could go to the Piece Market, you are basically a Free Piece." He said simply. "Problem with that is, you could end up in the same situation as before." She stopped to think about it for a while before letting out a long sigh.

"I accept." She said, not with a small amount of trepidation. That was fine with us, she would see.

"You know Seek? If I didn't know that they wouldn't let me come in by myself I would wonder what you are doing here." He joked and I just stared at him.

Oh, how I missed the days when he was uncomfortable under my stare.

**[} Chapter End {]**

**Hey guys! How's it going?**

**I wonder if people just ignore my notes or they just don't care enough to leave a review… So sad. Obviously with the exception of those who actually review. But seeing just eleven votes on the poll hurt my already abysmal self-esteem.**

**Anyway, PETITION! Guys I would love if you were to help me gather some ideas for Sacred Gears. Nothing as hardcore as Seth's SG though, just things on the level of Liam's or Trina's. I want/need low- mid- and high-tier SGs not Longinus material ones.**

**See you.**


	19. Tear Down the Wall

**Thanks to Rodvek97, PixelatedWriter342, DarkDrawerJ, mnorsyafiq92, Ragnas Brevolts, Saint-Leiker, HeyRawj, prisontaker and HaMiroKar420 for the reviews.**

**I HAVE SOME IMPORTANT THINKS TO SAY SO MAKE SURE YOU READ THE NOTES AT THE END.**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Highschool DxD, neither do I own any of the multiple resources that I will use for the story in the form of (but not limited to) references.

**Young Devil Gathering Arc – Tear Down the Wall**

**Seth POV**

Ayumi took to the group like fish in the water. Her initial trepidation passed after a week of being with the group. She called all of us training maniacs. She didn't complain even once though, so I guess she included herself in that description.

We had seen the Games of Bael vs Glasya-Labolas and Gremory vs Sitri again. We had also gone through the information we had gotten on the Gremory since then, obviously. We knew we needed much more power.

I had thrown myself into training once more. Wall or not, I was going to improve. To hell with everything else, I wouldn't see my little sister and comrades falling again, not if I had something to say about that. And I would make sure I _had_ a say.

I had Dovray up my training arrays so much that it was difficult to even move a finger but I powered through it. Every time I felt it was too much, I looked at Lucie. She had been rather down since the Game. Seek had to be near her all the time to ensure she didn't go overboard with her training. I couldn't look at that and get myself to tell Dovray to get the arrays down. I just couldn't, I had to improve.

Seek wasn't happy, but once I pointed in Lucie's direction she understood.

I had been working extra hard to increase my circles efficiency. Right that moment it was not a viable route in most cases. I needed the energy in case I had to use my Balance Breaker. That simply used too much energy for me to spend in anything else. But I was working on that.

As my physical power increased, I felt like my reserves let me expand them more. Seek and I arrived to the conclusion that I couldn't increase my magic if my body was not strong enough. There was only so much you could do with just magical talent alone. It was a point to remember for our magic users.

Talking about magic users. Brittney was breaking our minds. Her reserves continued to increase with no sign of slowing down. Soon she would be competing with Seek and me in the magic department. Either her magical talent was that amazing or we were wrong in our little theory.

Lucie for her part was in a difficult situation. Her training was going well, great even. But she had been scarred after last match. Nothing we did or said would calm her down. It got to the point that Seek wouldn't leave her side for fear that she would hurt herself or forget to eat while continuedly meditating. It was driving Seek, Liam and me crazy.

Although, on the good side, she had been working on a little project of hers. She had asked Dovray for help in her design apparently but otherwise she wouldn't tell a soul what she had in mind. My curiosity levels were really high with that. This was my little sister we were talking about, I wanted to know. But the project seemed to make her feel better so I let her be, for now.

Fortunately, Liam seemed to have some sort of calming presence too because when he was with her and he talked to her she actually listened. The problem was that Liam had his own training and couldn't always be there. But every free second, he had he spent it by her side.

Now that we are talking about Liam's training. He had been working in getting his Balance Breaker under control. It was like mine actually, driving him to absorb power. Fortunately for him, his Desert Thirst didn't actually require him to kill his opponents, just absorb their energy.

It was a major upgrade from Desert Claw. Desert Thirst covered his body like an armor and making him look like a desert beast/guardian. It was a fearful sight, I'll admit. There was also the fact that with the touch of even a single grain of sand your energy started to drain from you to Liam. It was infinitely more powerful and more convenient than the gauntlet. The only problem was that he needed to constantly absorb energy to keep it and once he deactivated it, all the energy he absorbed would leave him and the Balance Breaker would take away the energy cost from my little bro. It was amazing all the same.

On a different note, Liam had taken a page of my book. He got himself a tattoo of a water dragon on his back. I didn't ask, no one else did for that matter. We already knew. Alan and Xander had done the same. They each had a sword tattooed in their right shoulder. The burdens of our team were increasing with time. It was a humbling thought.

Trina had been doing wonderfully. Her Senjutsu sensing and power were increasing slowly but surely by the day. She was no Nekomata but she would get there with work. She was strangely passionate with the art, the only thing she liked more than Senjutsu was music. The last one she had been getting better and better lately, if someone wanted to know.

Xander had been training like a madman with Alan. Both of them had had their swordsmen ego hurt last Game. They were determined to prove themselves during the next match. It being against Bael didn't seem to deter they determination, actually, it was the other way around.

Dovray for his part had been a sly bastard. He had been working in a new type of knife without telling anyone anything. We had been in the middle of a spar when he decided to show it. Jaws had hit the ground and eyes had almost came out of their sockets. It was amazing, there was no other way to describe it. The Bael group was in for a surprise or two. I thought the Bishop wouldn't find another way to surprise us. I was wrong.

Talking about surprises.

**[}-o-{]**

"Let's see what you are made of, shall we?" I asked while everyone got together to see our new members strength. Nobody expected much though, we had already seen what she could do and we expected little more. She seemed to realize because she looked a bit hurt but mostly embarrassed.

She stood against Liam. It was a good way to measure their strength. Both of them got their guards up. My little brother summoned his gauntlet and covered his other hand in earth while his opponent covered both her hands in fire.

They charged at each other throwing punches around, dodging in her case and blocking and grabbing in his. He was slowly eating her energy while she was barely scratching his skin and leaving mild burns that did little to stop him.

The match was a lot longer than I anticipated but considering that Liam had some light weight arrays over his body I really shouldn't be surprised. They _were_ a lot lighter than what he normally used for training but they were still there.

The spar was nearing its end when the surprise came. Ayumi threw a punch with a particularly strong flame at Liam. A last effort of sorts, I guessed. She hit him and he was pushed back quite a bit. She fell to her knees. But the surprise was what happened then.

My chains summoned themselves. I stared at it wide eyed for a second until a purple flame came out of the lantern and floated up to the exhausted Rook. Everyone was looking at the events with varying degrees of shock. Yes, Seek and me had speculated that it _could_ happen since she was a fire user and an ex-church member. But we both thought that it was just hopeful thinking.

It had happened. Incinerate Anthem had chosen a new wielder. And said wielder was in our team. I glanced at Seek and both of us had stupidly proud expressions. Oh, Bael was in for a surprise if he thought our match would be easy.

**[}-o-{]**

Ever since then Ayumi had been training to adapt Incinerate Anthem to her style. That meant using holy flames instead of normal fire to cover her body while fighting. It was a lot more difficult than it sounded. A slip of her mind would end up with her having some nasty burns that were from holy fire. I knew that pain.

Fortunately for us, Walburga had been strangely helpful. She was barking mad, there was no doubt about that, but in her words, she liked the fights we were getting ourselves into. She wanted a part in that. So, she had been behaving herself in order for me to switch her with Laura once in a while. I readily accepted, even without Incinerate Anthem, she was a powerful Fire magic user.

Another small surprise, small compared to the others that is, came from Alan. During one of his training spars against Liam while the latter was getting his Balance Breaker under control the Knight had unlocked his very own Balance Breaker: Chromatic Blade. The longsword that was normally made of neutral energy was now switching between elemental magics, mainly Fire, Ice, Lightning and Poison. Any other type and he would have to concentrate a lot and waste more energy.

It actually costed only twice as the use of his normal Sacred Gear. This translated in him being able to fight almost constantly with an elemental sword in hand which was handy to say the least. The bad part, for him at least, was that he had to up his magic reserves training to be able to get a decent enough amount. That would allow him to fight with the Chromatic Blade on all the time and switch once or twice if necessary. It costed more energy to change.

Last but definitely not least was Seek. She kept up with her basic training in both her magics while also scheming as much as she could without knowing what the rules for the game would be. She also had taken to watch over Lucie so that consumed a lot of her time too.

Then there was our unofficial member, Leonardo.

**[}-o-{]**

"You really don't want me in your peerage, do you?" He asked one day out of nowhere.

"Don't be stupid, I know you are not." I admonished. He looked at me surprised but confused at the same time. "Who in their right mind wouldn't want you in their peerage?" I asked.

"Then why haven't you asked even once after that time. A lot of time has passed and I'm still here, but you haven't tried to recruit me again. Why keep me around?" He asked. I turned to look directly at him. He was staring intently at me.

"We haven't asked because you said no, we heard the first time. If you changed your mind you would have asked us instead. And we keep you around for a couple of reasons. First, your summons are great for training." I lifted a finger with a smile. "Second, you get along with the other young ones and they seem to think of you as a close friend." I lifted another finger, he looked surprised.

I honestly didn't know why he was. Liam and Lucie talked a lot with him and the other way around. They all enjoyed spending time together. They sat together each time Trina practiced with her guitar They relaxed together when the Pawn and Bishop where resting from training.

"And third," I lifted another finger while my voice broke him out of his thoughts. "Is that we like having you here, silly boy." I chuckled while putting a hand on top of his head and ruffling his silvery hair. His face turned red and he mumbled something. "What was that?"

"Thanks… big bro." He whispered just loud enough for me to catch it.

"Don't mention it, little bro." I told him with a smile. He looked at me with a serious face, although her cheeks still had a bit of red.

"I'll wait for you, brother." He said. It took me a couple of seconds to get what he was referring to. "In the meantime, I have to get stronger, would you help me?"

"Of course, silly boy." I grinned at him.

**[}-o-{]**

Since that day little Leo had joined our training. He did everything. He had started using Dovray's training arrays while also training on knife throwing with said Bishop for physical training. He had also taken to meditate with Lucie and he helped us with his summons every time we needed.

His close combat was not that good but with his summons he would rarely need it anyway. He had started trying to use a single more powerful beast instead of several weaker ones in case he met an opponent that could breeze through the numbers. He hadn't had much luck with that but he had just started.

**[}-o-{]**

**Seekvaira POV**

The atmosphere in the entrance hall of Agares Manor was glacial, literally. I could see the young ones shaking, I didn't know if it was because of the cold or because of fear, probably both.

We had just come back from witnessing the Bael vs Gremory match. It had been surprise after surprise from the Gremory group. The Knight had managed to get his hands in another Sacred Gear and achieve a sub-species Balance Breaker. The Bishop had gotten Forbidden Balor View relatively under control. The other Knight had gotten _Durandal_ of all things upgraded with Excalibur, Ex-Durandal they called it. The Red One had tamed _Juggernaut Drive_, Cardinal Crimson Promotion he called it.

If Sairaorg hadn't been able to talk the organizers into letting him be together with his Pawn (Regulus Nemea, that had been quite the surprise too but at that point it was difficult to be _more_ surprised than we already were.) then he could have lost. 'Could have' being the key words there. If Issei Hyoudou was a beast then Sairaorg Bael was a complete monster. We knew he was strong. We had never tried to downplay the threat he was, but somehow, we had been extremely wrong all this time.

It had been annoying enough when they gave this kind of news one by one. But all at the same time… Seth hadn't opened his mouth at all during the match or on the way back. After entering the manor, he just walked to the center of the room, everyone staying behind him, even me.

"I can't beat them." Seth said finally. He didn't sound defeated, frustrated or even angry. He was stating a fact. "I can't beat Bael or Hyoudou."

This was bad. I had never heard Seth give up. He had been aware of his weaknesses, of the power of his enemies. But he always said that he would reach their level. That he would somehow defeat them. Hearing him say that he _couldn't_ beat someone was… wrong.

"But we will win anyway." He continued, breaking me and everyone else from our thoughts. "We will win our match against Bael and later against Gremory." He stated.

'We_ will win.'_ Those words echoed through my head. Probably everyone else had caught on what he said. _We_ would win.

"Now," My Queen started. "I don't know about you guys, but I feel like training." And with that he started walking to the back door, walking to the normal place for training. Nobody said anything but everyone started walking behind him. I suppressed a smile. If there was any doubt about the determination of anyone in the group after witnessing the power of our opponents then those had vanished like they were never there to begin with.

"Seekvaira." My father called from the side with a proud smile on his face. "Can you call your Queen? I know he had to motivate the team but I need to speak with you and he should be there as your Queen." I nodded and went after my peerage to call Seth. I got there just in time to stop him from starting.

He seemed miffed that I interrupted just when he was all determined and motivated but nodded all the same and followed me inside. We then followed father to his study.

"I will go to the point." He started. "I had been waiting to see how things developed. Everything has been quite since your match with Sona." He said. It took me a second to caught on what he meant. I stared at him, as if I was looking for a hint of deception. I knew that he wouldn't lie, but I had to do that to believe it.

"Are… is that true?" I asked, my voice cracking and my mask falling giving place to what I was sure was the most hopeful expression I was capable of.

"Yes, your game against the traitor was a nice first step. Your assistance during the terrorist attack did wonders too. Especially your Queen becoming a public hero and a figure of power on par with the Red Dragon Emperor." He explained. I couldn't help but look between my father and my Queen in disbelief. "Lastly, the Game with Sona proved that you have a good head on your shoulders to anyone that might have doubted it. You proved yourself, Seekvaira." He let his serious mask slip showing me a warm, relieved and, most of all, truly happy, if a bit watery, expression.

I just kept my gaze on him. Stunned, I couldn't believe my ears. I felt a hand on my shoulders and I turned to see my Queen giving me a reassuring squeeze. He smiled softly at me.

"You are free, Seek." He said just as softly. My father's and his voice, his touch, all that made it real. It hit me. I was free.

"I am free." The words tasted so very sweet in my mouth. The cloud that had been following me for years lifted leaving place to an ever-shining sun. All those years…

I run up to my father and hugged him like my life depended on it. I cried on his shoulder for the first time in Maou knows how long. I didn't know where mother was but I was sure I would give her the same hug as soon as I saw her.

All those years, blocking away everything. Focusing in looking for power for today. Studying and analyzing the other heirs. Most of that time spend by myself or with Dovray. All that time afraid of the future.

And all that changed because of one person. I looked up at Seth. He was smiling at me.

He had brought most of the peerage that I had today. He had recruited Trina, Liam, Lucie, Ayumi. Alan and Brittney had joined because of the changes he brought with him.

He had made my goal his. He had worked just as hard if not more than myself to get me free. He had driven himself to the ground more than once to get stronger. To get me free. He appeared from nowhere when I was the most desperate and he had changed everything.

I run up to him and hugged him, burying my face in his chest.

"Thank you." I said. I was sure no matter how many times I said it, it would never be enough. "Thank you." I kept repeating. Because that was everything I could do at the moment.

"Juven." He spoke to my father when I had calmed down a little after a minute. "Could you tell everyone in the kitchen that there will be two less people to feed tonight. Seek and I were going to eat dinner out tonight."

We hadn't made any plans, but I didn't point it out. I knew and he knew. I was sure he would have had a cheeky grin in his face if I looked up to him. I didn't care.

"Of course." My father said and I was sure he was smiling. Seth slowly walked me out of my father's study.

"Thank you, Juven, truly." My Queen said before starting to close the door.

"Don't mention it young man. Enjoy the night." My father answered. "But not too much!" He shouted playfully just at the same time the door closed. He could be so childish some times.

"So," Seth started. "Where should we go for our date tonight?" He asked. Anything that may have remained of his initial bad mood because of the match had vanished. In its place was a warm smile that matched my mood perfectly.

"We'll see once we get there." I answered.

For once, I didn't have plans, and that was just fine.

I didn't _need_ plans.

I already had what I wanted.

**[} Chapter End {]**

**Hey guys! How's it going?**

**ANNOUNCEMENT 1: I wanted to tell you guys that I put all the information I considered important about the peerage in my profile to those that are interested. If I forgot something fell free to point it out.**

**ANNOUNCEMENT 2: Next chapter we start with the Agares vs Bael boys! And girls, can't forget about the girls or they are gonna kill me.**

**ANNOUNCEMENT 3: Sadly, I'll be having a busy week so probably I'll only publish one more chapter this week. Don't come knocking at my door with your torches because I'm not even gonna be here. *cries in a corner* So much time without a computer…**

**ANNOUNCEMENT 4: Wow, those are a lot of announcement, at first, I thought they would be like… two. But oh well, here we are. We are nearing the end of the first volume of this series people! After Agares vs Gremory comes the epilogue unless something crazy happens. **

**My point with all this is, I'm gonna take a break from this series and start a new one (besides the secondary series I already have that is.). I'll give you a HINT about it: 71.**

**THANKS to all those people that send their ideas for Sacred Gears, keep them coming boys there are never enough gears in my list.**

**See you.**


	20. The Brave and The Bold

**Thanks to DarkDrawerJ, ioloroso019, HeyRawj, TheAbyssWatcher, HaMiroKar420, Ragnas Bredvolts and reader0007 for the reviews.**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Highschool DxD, neither do I own any of the multiple resources that I will use for the story in the form of (but not limited to) references.

**Young Devil Gathering Arc – The Brave and The Bold**

**Seekvaira POV**

Last month had been amazing. There had been a lot of training involved, that was for sure. But there was a difference from before. Everything seemed easier for me. Seth told me he felt the same. We had lifted a metaphorical weight from our shoulders. We were both free.

Training had been continued as before. Everyone was polishing their weapons so to speak. Nobody had achieved anything new. Nobody but Lucie that is, although the only one that knew what she could do now was Dovray who had helped her. They hadn't told anyone until the last week in order for me to be able to take it into account for the plans. It had been a pleasant surprise.

Besides training, Seth and I started going on dates every Sunday. It was our day. We never made plans though. The only thing we knew was that we were going to be together that day. Once we would just walk and end up in a park just relaxing and talking. Another we would go shopping and then spend some time in a café. Sometimes we would just go out for dinner.

It was the best thing in the world, not having to worry about what was the next step, what came after or what to do if something went wrong. Nothing could go wrong if there was no plan to begin with. That was our philosophy.

Dad had been strangely supportive. It was just recently that I had found out why. He had already had a serious conversation with Seth some time before I came to be free. As expected, he had threatened Seth not so subtly about not hurting me. I had half a mind to send a Wind barrage at my father when I found out.

When I dropped by to have some words with him though, he had laughed and said that Seth had just waved him off. He had said and father quoted 'Good luck with that, sir. You'll have to pick up my pieces after Seek's Wind magic and Ice stare are done with me.' The target for my Wind barrage had suddenly changed to another male.

I wasn't surprised that Seth hadn't been scared. While my father was powerful enough to scare anyone in our level, Seth had some close calls with equally frightening things. It would take a god to scare him at this point. And he was powerful and fearless enough to try and stand before one anyway. I wasn't ashamed to say that _that_ was one of the reasons I had chosen him.

But today we had something else in mind. Our Rating Game against Sairaorg.

We had just been informed of the rules: Lightning Fast. That was bad news for us, really bad news. The rules for the game were simple. We had the minimum amount of time and the narrowest playing field. When they said it was fast, they weren't joking. It was the worst type of game for us, and the best type of game for Sairaorg. Our chances were low before, now they were abysmal.

I turned to Seth. He had the same face he had against Diodora, the same face he had against Sona, the same face he would have had against Zephyrdor and the same face he probably would have if he was pitted against Sirzechs Lucifer himself. It was reassuring and at the same time unnerving how little he seemed to be affected by pressure.

"What's the plan, Seek?" He asked me with a calm voice. That broke me from my realistic (negative) thoughts.

"Trina, as soon as we enter, I want you to scan the field and tell me where each of them goes. I will separate our team accordingly." Lightning Fast games tended to be simple corridors that connected at some point with the main one or a main room.

"Ok." She said with her usual bored expression, although one could see her shoulders tense if they looked close enough and knew her well enough.

"So, I go after Bael. He won't separate from that lion, what's your plan for that?" Seth asked. No one could question that he was the only one in our team that had even a chance to stand before Sairaorg and last.

"Iorek and Dovray will go with you. Dovray will separate them enough for you and Iorek to take on one each and deal with them. Dovray will help Iorek." I explained. They nodded and Iorek barked.

[Teams ready?]

Everyone stood up and went to the transportation circle. Seth took my hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "Don't worry." I knew what he meant. We didn't have anything to prove anymore. We wouldn't lose anything.

[And the match begins!] The announcer shouted and we were already inside a room. Five entrances. One of them seemed to go below ground level. Trina was already sitting in her meditative pose.

"Bael and Regulus are in the middle." Seth, Dovray and Iorek went into the underground passage.

"The Queen is on the first left." She announced.

"Alan, you know what to do." I prayed to Maou that our theory was right.

"Furcas and Andrealphus are on the far left."

"Lucie, Xander you two will go with me there once I tell the others." They nodded at me.

"Balam and Buné are on the far right." She continued.

"Ayumi, go after Balam. Liam you take down that fake Dragon." They nodded and went through the fifth entrance. "Trina and Brittney go to the remaining passage." The did as told.

I looked at my little sister and Xander. They had determined expressions. Especially Lucie, she had the will to prove herself in this game.

The game had started.

It didn't take long for us to reach the point where we met our foes.

Coriana Andrealphus and Beluga Furcas.

"Lucie, you know what to do." She nodded and put her staff up. A prison formed around Furcas and his horse.

"What? She is supposed to have a Barrier affinity!" The imprisoned Knight shouted. I smirked.

"And that's a barrier. A barrier that blocks you inside." He looked at Lucie both in awe and fear. She had smug expression in her face. "Seth, she did it." I informed.

[That's my little sister for you.] We heard his voice. I noticed that it sounded strained. The battle must be already on. Lucie didn't seem to notice because she was beaming at the same time she kept the barrier up.

We didn't have much time to spent admiring her work though. There was another enemy in front of us. I was already slowing her down. Xander charging at her. She looked unsure for a second that was several for us.

Then she put her hands on the ground. Xander was stopped by a myriad of Ice spikes that appeared from the ground. Some had cut his legs. That was a troublesome piece of magic. Good to keep a close combat enemy away when you didn't have time to see where they were coming from. Unfortunately, it also spent a lot of energy.

Xander charged again. This time he jumped just as the spell was cast. But Andraelphus had anticipated that too. The spikes went further up this time. The Pawn barely got enough time to jump away kicking a spike before he was taken out by being pierced with all those spikes.

I stopped the slow and send Wind barrage at the Bishop. It would clear the spikes and catch her by surprise at the same time. Once the spikes were cleared and her shield somewhat damaged, I put up the slow again. She looked tired. It was the Illusion user's moment to shine. The Bishop put up her hands to shoot Ice lances at the Pawn. That didn't work out quite as she expected because Xander spread in five copies of himself. Each running in random directions. She didn't have a clear target and was slowed. She was done for.

[The Bael team's Bishop retires.] The announced confirmed it.

We turned to see Furcas trying to free himself. Lucie already had sweat covering her brow. The prison, while impressive, required a lot of energy. And while Lucie had come a long way from that girl with that could barely do anything due to her small reserves. She wasn't at my or even Brittney's level yet.

"Well done, Lucie, you can put it down." I said putting a slow on the Knight.

[The Bael team's Queen retires.] I suppressed the need to cheer out loud. The theory must have been right. There was no way Alan could have taken out Abaddon otherwise.

I was broken from my thoughts as Xander dealt the last strike on Furcas taking him out.

[One Knight, one Bishop and one Rook from the Bael team retire.] The other fronts where going well too it seemed.

[Seekvaira, come here quick!] Dovray shouted in the communication device.

Lucie had been healing Xander of the cuts in his body. They were almost closed. We decided to leave that for later and continued through our passage to the main one where Seth and company were. We passed through an entrance and saw the battlefield.

[The Bael team's remaining Knight and Rook retire.] We ignored the announcer.

The three of us were frozen in place. A silent scream coming out of my mouth. Lucie fell to her knees shaking from head to toe.

**[}-o-{]**

**Liam POV**

"Ayumi, go after Balam. Liam you take down that fake Dragon." Seekvaira told us. I wanted to smirk. My brother was now known as the Warden of Dragons. Not only had he stopped the Red Dragon Emperor but also the wielder of all Vritra Sacred Gears. I could take on a fake Dragon or I would stop calling myself Seth's brother.

Ayumi and I went through the passage in silence. It was not an uncomfortable one though. She didn't hold anything against me from her loss during our past Rating Game apparently. I was sure that she would have if I had bragged about it. My brother had warned me against that, although both of us knew it wasn't necessary. I knew mockery, I would never do the same.

We had become training partners ever since she had joined. My Balance Breaker let me take on her flames with barely any damage contrary to what happened to most of the others. It did damage but the absorption also had a low healing factor that helped keep me on my feet.

My daydreaming was broken when we found the Rooks. We didn't say anything. She charged to the stone-looking guy and I charged at the tall, lanky man.

Once I was a meter or so away from him, I went into Balance Breaker instantly. Fake or not the guy could transform into a Dragon, I wasn't about to believe I could take on one without my Sacred Gear. Seth would kick my ass if I lost because of overconfidence.

He transformed instantly as soon as he saw me do it. Sand clashed against scales. I could already tell this was going to be a long battle. One I would win, but still a long battle. The man had the energy reserves of a Dragon too.

[Seth, she did it.] I heard Seekvaira communicate and I smirked. _'So, you proved your power, Lucie.'_

[That's my little sister for you.] I didn't have to see my very first friend to know she was beaming like the sun.

I grabbed Buné trying to maximize the absorption of energy while he tried to free himself breathing fire on me. I wanted to laugh at that. Ayumi's flames were so much more powerful and scary. This was like a warm wind in comparison. A warm wind that would leave burns for Lucie to heal but a warm wind in the end.

[The Bael team's Bishop retires.] Probably Seekvaira's side. They were two against one considering Lucie was containing one.

I spared a second to look at Ayumi's battle. The poor fake Dragon didn't have a chance of freeing himself of my hold and I was slowly depleting his reserves. He could have given up. The result was set already.

My partner for the Game was finishing her fight much faster than me. Balam was tough, we would admit it. But holy fire was holy fire. And holy fire against a Devil was a win in most situations. The only exceptions were monsters like Bael or Hyoudou and even them would suffer.

Although she was winning, I could see she had taken several hits. She was breathing hard and holding her side. I hoped she could take out Balam before being taken out, dealing with both would be a pain.

[The Bael team's Queen retires.] So, Seekvaira's theory worked. That was good. Not that we didn't have faith in her strategy but that one was quite the gamble on her part. Even she admitted as much. A gamble with good chances but a gamble nonetheless.

[One Knight, one Bishop and one Rook from the Bael team retire.] Ayumi had taken out Balam. She didn't look like she was in condition of helping me but that was ok. Buné was almost out already. His fire was barely doing anything except some fireworks at this point. He was almost out. Seemed like Lucie and the rest had cleared her side and Trina and Brittney were half done.

'_I wonder how-?'_

[Seekvaira, come here quick!] I didn't like Dovray's tone one bit. Fortunately, Buné's legs gave out and I started pummeling him to the ground. Big brother could need help. I needed to end faster.

[The Bael team's remaining Knight and Rook retire.] I didn't pay attention to the announcement. I dropped the Balance Breaker and my legs barely held me on my feet. Ayumi and I dragged ourselves to the main passage, where Seth and the others were.

I froze. Ayumi had horror printed on her face.

**[}-o-{]**

**Trina POV**

"Trina and Brittney go to the remaining passage." That was our order. We were against Sabnock and Crocell. Both of them problematic enemies.

The good thing was that Sabnock didn't know I had Senjutsu so he couldn't block it and Crocell could increase gravity all he wanted, Brittney's Lightning would hit him all the same.

We found them pretty fast. The Bishop lifted his staff and sealed Brittney. We had guessed he would do that. Sealing her Lightning magic would render her next to useless. She wasn't ashamed of admitting that she was nothing without her magic.

[Seth, she did it.] I heard Seekvaira on the communication device. That was good, poor little Lucie had been feeling down since last Game. This little victory was what she needed.

[That's my little sister for you.] And some compliments from her big brother would help too. She would be all smiles again soon, I would bet on that.

I was charging at the Bishop, which was easier said than done as the Knight was getting in my way stabbing with his own spear and sending Assault attacks my way. I could ignore his Gravity Jail pretty easily boosting my legs with Senjutsu. I continued ignoring him until suddenly I spun around putting Senjutsu on my attack. The Knight went flying and hit the wall leaving a spiderweb of cracks over the wall behind him. I turned to the Bishop; he was sweating bullets.

[The Bael team's Bishop retires.] Seekvaira and Xander, most probably. They had numbers working for them.

I ran to the Bishop. Seth was awesome but Sairaorg Bael was just unfair. We had seen it and Seth himself had admitted it. He couldn't beat the Bael heir. We had to hurry and go help him.

[The Bael team's Queen retires.] So, Seekvaira's theory was right. Lady Luck was on our side this time.

'_Stay in one place, would you? I just want to stab you.'_ I thought to myself. The Bishop was using what little energy he had left to shoot fire, pushing himself away from me. Finally, his reserves emptied, and I could pierce him with my spear.

[One Knight, one Bishop and one Rook from the Bael team retire.] _That_ was good timing. I turned to see Brittney shooting a Lightning bolt in my direction. I jumped away and the Bael Knight was hit square in the chest.

[Seekvaira, come here quick!] We had to hurry up. I jumped strengthening my legs with Senjutsu and piercing him with my spear too.

[The Bael team's remaining Knight and Rook retire.]

I turned to my fellow Pawn and both of us nodded at each other. I had used practically all my energy with those Senjutsu boosts but Brittney was as good as new. We ran to the main passage to assist our Queen. That was the plan. When we arrived, we were facing a shell-shocked Alan.

Turning around to see what he was seeing my eyes widened and I heard a gasp coming from right beside me.

'_No.'_ Was the only thing that went through my head.

**[}-o-{]**

**Alan POV**

"Alan, you know what to do." Seekvaira told me.

I prayed to each of the four Maous that my Kings plan would work. Because if it didn't then this fight would be a pain. The only reason I wasn't complaining was because I knew Seth would have a tougher time. I respected power and enjoyed a fight against a worthy opponent but Sairaoirg Bael was just… too strong, plain and simple. It sent shivers down my spine just to think about fighting him.

And Seth had said that he couldn't beat him. So, that basically meant that our only chance was fighting him together. And praying to the Maous, can't forget about that.

"The Knight? Well, I was expecting a challenge. Not necessarily the Ice Guardian but the sand child would have been nice." Commented Abaddon as soon as we came into each other. It would have pissed me off if I didn't know they were the more powerful ones and at the same time the ones that recieved the most attention in our group.

[Seth, she did it.] I had to suppress a smile at that. The little girl had taken her loss last game harder than Iorek, Xander and I, and that was saying something.

[That's my little sister for you.] Seth commented. His voice told me something else, he was already fighting. I didn't have time to mess around here.

"Are you too afraid? That's funny." The enemy Queen mocked. I took out Taming Sari. It was time to gamble, I guessed. I charged at the Queen. "So boring." She formed a Hole right in front of me. I used the holy weapon ability.

I phased through the Hole and smirked.

The theory was simple. Could I phase through the Holes made by Abaddon with Taming Sari? Yes, apparently I could.

Dealing with an Abaddon was a tricky affair. They could absorb your spells with their Holes and send it back to you barely using energy of their own. That was how she had taken out Gremory's Queen. It was also difficult for a close-range fighter because she could send you through a Hole and leave you even further than you started and harass you from a distance until you were out.

I could ignore all that and go right through the Holes as if they weren't there in the first place. It was perfect.

"What was that?" I said, smugness dripping from my voice as I kept running. She was stunned for a second. Her expression morphed to horror as she put up another Hole and I phased right through it again.

"H-How?!" She shouted while stepping back and putting up more Holes. I wouldn't even need my Sacred Gear for this, it seemed. Which was a good thing, I needed the energy to continue using Taming Sari's ability. She should be thankful that there was a considerable distance between us.

Even my Knight speed would take time, especially considering the energy I was wasting phasing through all those Holes. But there was no way around it. She could put up more holes if I tried to dodge. It was best to make a straight line to her.

"No, it can't be."

[The Bael team's Bishop retires.] _'There goes my first blood.'_ I complained to myself.

I was close already and she was panicking. That's what happens when you trust one trick too much. That was what made Seth and Dovray scary, they had one too many tricks up their sleeves.

"Can't be…" The Queen muttered. It was kind of sad. I stabbed her with the dagger anyway. I had a job to do.

[The Bael team's Queen retires.] I staggered while trying to take a step after that. The 'battle' had taken a lot more out of me than I had thought. Taming Sari wasted way too much energy with its ability_._

'_I have to put a bit more effort into magic reserve training'_, I thought to myself. As much as I didn't want to, it would become a necessity. Both my weapons consumed energy to have more of an edge. I would have to put effort into that, or I would be left behind. Xander would never let me live it down if he defeated me.

[One Knight, one Bishop and one Rook from the Bael team retire.] _'Well, everyone is on a roll it seems.'_

I shook myself out of my stupor and ran to the main passage. Seth would need a hand with that monster of a man.

[Seekvaira, come here quick!]

Like that I reached the entrance and stopped to see how the fight was going.

My eyes opened wide. _'No.'_ That was everything I could think of the situation. It just wasn't possible. There was no way. No way.

[The Bael team's remaining Knight and Rook retire.]

I barely registered the announcement. I couldn't move. I just couldn't. Fear creeped his way up from my legs to my head. Cold sweat covered my body and I could feel the hand that still held Taming Sari shaking.

No way.

**[}-o-{]**

**General POV**

For a moment nobody moved. Every member of the Agares team stayed where they were. Too shocked. Too afraid. Too shaken. Even Regulus was swept by the atmosphere and stopped moving.

There was only one thing that could be heard. The flow of liquid and drops hitting the floor. In the middle of it all were two men. One standing in front of the other.

The former lacked an arm, but the wound had already stopped bleeding. The arm seemed to be growing again like a bundle of red roots intertwining and extending where the cut had been made.

A two-handed scythe lying on the floor. Left in the ground, apparently forgotten by its barely conscious master.

And the second man was facing his enemy. The hand of his opponent held his head. His body was in the air with a slight oscillation like that of a hanged man. His blood flowing down his body and falling to the ground. A puddle of blood forming bellows him.

**[} Chapter End {]**

**Hey guys! How's it going?**

**Can't believe I got this done so fast. I hope you like it guys.**

**See you.**


	21. Broken Glass

**Thanks to GGPD, HeyRawj, Tobi the Gooder Boy, DarkDrawerJ, reader0007, HaMiroKar420, FbItracking, Rigald02, Ragnas Bredvolts and Saint-Leiker for the reviews.**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Highschool DxD, neither do I own any of the multiple resources that I will use for the story in the form of (but not limited to) references.

**Young Devil Gathering Arc – Broken Glass**

**Dovray POV**

"Bael and Regulus are in the middle."

That was everything we needed to know. We moved to the passage and started running. I could feel my shoulders tense. This battle was nothing like the previous ones. This was a battle of power. Power that we were sure we didn't have.

'_We will win.'_ I focused on those words. I was sure the others were chanting that in their heads together with their own thoughts. But we needed those words to be able to move in this game. There was not an out this time. Seth couldn't earn us the win like with Sitri. Seth couldn't do it alone.

I looked at him, our Queen. He didn't look worried. He didn't even look tense. He looked like he was going to a training spar. Like he didn't have a concern in the world. It was a calming sight, really.

"I was hoping it would be you." We heard. Bael and the boy we knew was Regulus Nemea were standing next to each other.

"Hi." Seth said, like he was greeting a friend on the street. Bael laughed. I was already moving. Four knives flew off my hand and landed in a straight line between the heir and the Pawn. A wall of energy appeared connecting all the knives. Iorek charged.

Regulus Nemea started its transformation into lion form. By the time he was done, Iorek was already next to it, tackling it away from Bael. Seth went after the heir. I would have liked to, but there was no time to look at his battle.

I sent four more knives to the Longinus, Lightning knives this time. They landed around it and gave a shock that would have damaged even Iorek or Seth. The golden lion just shook it off. _'No Lightning then.'_ I made a mental note.

Iorek charged again. Both creatures stood in their rear legs and clashed against each other. Front legs pushing the enemy shoulders. Their jaws trying to take a bite at the other.

[Seth, she did it.] That was good. Poor Lucie, Seth had spent half a day talking her out of getting a tattoo after her loss against Sitri. He resembled a troubled parent. It didn't help that he had tattoos exactly for things like that and that Liam, Alan and Xander had gotten one each too.

[That's my little sister for you.] She would _definitely_ appreciate that. The girl loved praise and if it came from Seth it had double or triple the effect.

I didn't wait to see who was stronger in the battle of beasts. Iorek could be a behemoth but he was still a baby even after all the time I had known him. Behemoths were creatures that lived for too long and took just as long to develop. It would be a long time before Iorek stood as the town-sized force of nature that an adult behemoth was. And even then, Iorek was a watered-down version of the real thing. It wasn't an insult. It was the truth.

I sent another set of four knives, explosive ones this time. I wouldn't be able to use anything but 4-Knived combos, anything less and it would be useless, I just knew it. The knives landed behind Regulus, slightly to a side. The explosion blew the lion up in the air. It landed somewhere to Iorek's left side.

[The Bael team's Bishop retires.]

The baby behemoth had charged at the lion again. Said golden creature stood op and smacked Iorek's head with a paw. Our Rook ended in the ground. _'This is bad.'_ The Pawn was already going after my fallen comrade.

I set another wall with my knives between them. The living Sacred Gear clashed against the wall breaking it down. But it did buy us a second. That was all Iorek needed to stand again. I moved closer sending another batch of knives. We were barely doing something to the golden lion. It was frustrating.

[The Bael team's Queen retires.] _'So, Seekvaira was right. That's a relieve.'_

Regulus had stepped to a side, making the new explosion send him my way. I didn't want to use that trick yet, but I had no choice. This was a Longinus we were fighting against. I threw a knife to a side and channeled my magic. Just when I was seeing the lion's paw going down on me, I appeared where the knife had landed.

Flash Knife I had called it, everyone supported the name. On use the knife would give out a small flash of light. It was a nice last resort if I needed to get out of a… situation. The problem was that it consumed a lot of energy from me. It was a good thing my other knives and combos almost didn't use magic.

I felt dread crawling in my skin. Seth had used his Balance Breaker. That was a feeling that was difficult to explain but it was unforgettable. Like Death itself was standing in front of you with his scythe behind your neck, telling you that your life was over.

[One Knight, one Bishop and one Rook from the Bael team retire.]

'_That's great.'_ I thought as beads of sweat formed on my brow. Iorek was clashing against. I took a second to look at our Queen. My eyes widened.

I had turned just in time to see Seth being punched away.

"Seekvaira, come here quick!" I shouted to the communication device.

I turned again when I heard a loud noise. Iorek had been smashed against a wall and Regulus was coming after me. I threw another knife and teleported away again. No more free escapes for me. Another batch of explosive knives was sent after the Longinus and I turned again.

I didn't even hear the next announcement.

I froze. I heard Iorek whimpering.

Seth was being held in the air like a ragged doll by Bael.

**[}-o-{]**

**Seth POV**

"Bael and Regulus are in the middle."

We started moving without saying a word. My mind was running through plans to deal with Bael but I came up with nothing. What was there I could do against someone that was just so stupidly powerful?

His body was so strong I doubted my magic would even scratch him. And that was without Touki. The manifestation of that monster's fighting spirit would be a problem in and on itself.

I would have to improvise. I would have preferred a plan, but I didn't have that on my side this time. Stupid Lightning Fast rules.

Even the souls were unusually quiet. There would usually be a wolf or two barking around, most of the time it being Sirius. Or Laura would be talking or humming. A cry from Filo. Even Walburga with her bitching and crazy talking. But there was nothing now. Everyone knew what was coming.

"I was hoping it would be you." We heard. Bael and Regulus Nemea stood side by side. Good. They hadn't merged yet.

"Hi." I said casually. I needed to keep a calm mind to deal with this guy. One mistake and his fist would punch the living daylights out of me, metaphorically and literally.

Dovray build a magical wall between King and Pawn. I charged summoning the chains, a pair of wolves instantly taking control of the lantern and scythe. Ice spear circles formed above my head.

The heir stood there like nothing was happening. The spears clashed against him and broke like they had hit a diamond wall. I would have been surprised or shocked, but I expected as much. Didn't hurt to try though.

The chains, now that he _did _dodge. Effortlessly he stepped aside and ducked under both chains at the last second so my wolves couldn't get him. I didn't stop moving or attacking. If I stopped, he would be on me on a second. If I let him have his way, he would stomp me.

[Seth, she did it.] I was so proud of that message. Lucie had driven herself to the ground working on that prison. It was her way of telling us, she would be no pushover. She may not fight, but the enemy would definitely not overlook her. They wouldn't get past her as if she was nothing, not again.

"That's my little sister for you." I meant it. She was my little sister. I knew she could do amazing things. I knew she would do even more amazing things in the future too. And I would be right there to see them happen.

I saw Bael's legs tense up. He was going to charge at me. A giant circle formed in front of me. After working with Seek one day and we had come up with this. Blizzard, I called it. A storm of tiny sharp ice shards shot at the heir in front of me. It didn't stop his jump, but it slowed it down and he didn't reach me. Good.

[The Bael team's Bishop retires.]

I put up my arms and several pillars of Ice formed around us. Bael was coming at me again. I swung a chain up to a pillar and pulled me away. The sound and the broken ground beneath the heir's fist told me it wouldn't have been nice to receive that.

I pulled another trick just in case. An Ice chute formed right below my feet and I skated on it. It was a bit of a waste of energy, but it did improve my speed a bit. I needed that bit if I wanted to survive this. I kept swinging my chains at him. I was taking in deep breaths in order to keep myself as calm and collected as possible.

[The Bael team's Queen retires.] Great, Seek's little trick had worked.

Bael appeared in from of me and smashed the ground. The chute broke and I stumbled for half a second. That was all he needed. I twisted my body to try and avoid the blow. I succeeded. His fist flew past my head. Then it was like a Wind barrage of Seek's hit me in the face.

My body flew in the air and I started to roll on the ground. _'Shit, this is ridiculous!'_ I twisted my body in the air and put my feet on the ground. I skidded for a few meters, but I was focusing my gaze in my opponent. He was charging again. Another Blizzard stopped him.

This wasn't working. I needed more speed. More power.

[Balance Breaker: Reaper of Souls]

"That's more like it!" Bael shouted. He sounded exited. _'Fucking battle-maniac.'_ I cursed in my mind.

We charged at each other. His movements had become much clearer to me. I could follow them. I was faster. Excitement flowed through my veins. I could feel his life force. It was calling me to end it.

I heard an announcement, but I ignored it.

His fists and feet flew past me several times. Now he couldn't just send me away. There was not escape from death and I _was_ death now. I frowned. My scythe was flying past him too. That wasn't how it was supposed to be. He was supposed to d-… fall.

I ducked under a kick and saw a chance. I jumped and my scythe drawing a circle. His arm was not connected to his body anymore. A smirk grew in my face. But it quickly vanished. I had messed up.

I was in the air. I didn't have the chains to pull me away. My wings wouldn't act fast enough. I faced Bael and summoned an Ice shield in front of me. His fist smashed against it and his fist went right through it like it was made of paper. My face suffered all his power. My body flew in the air. I could feel my blood starting to flow from my brow and I think my left eye was damaged. That or I couldn't open it.

I put up another shield, but he kicked right through it too. I was flying again. This time I hit a wall. _'Finally.'_ I thought. My mind felt dizzy. But I was not flying, and I could still move. I pushed myself and charged again. We ran at each other.

I swung my scythe again. My movement felt sluggish. He smacked me with his remaining arm against the ground. And he punched. And then he punched again. And again. And again. Head. Chest. Shoulder. Chest. Head.

My scythe had fallen from my hands long ago. I barely felt my consciousness, let alone pain. He grabbed my head and pulled me up. I was hanging at the end of his extended arm and he was looking directly at me healthy eye.

We looked at each other. Silence seemed to have fallen on the whole place. I only heard my blood dripping to the ground. Only _my_ blood, I noticed. I could see from the corner of my eye.

His arm was growing again. Muscle and veins formed again. Tissue grew from where the cut had been made. It looked like red roots rising and blending with each other in a grotesque show. In the end, said bundle of muscle and veins separated in five and his fingers took shape. He had his arm back.

'_Touki?'_ Was all my confused, numb mind could work out.

"Bael." I forced out of my throat. I came out as barely a whisper.

"Yeah?" He asked. His voice didn't sound mocking. He sounded curious.

"I hope you like fire." I said. "Because I know a crazy bitch that does." I stated.

I could hear said crazy bitch laughing in my head. The green flame at the end of my scythe, that was lying on the floor, glowed and grew slightly. Then everything exploded in flames. I could feel it burning my body. I pushed through it. I grabbed the two-handed weapon that was the source of the inferno that surrounded me.

"Seek, everyone." I muttered into the device. "See you later. And remember."

I charged at Bael with my last bit of strength leaving me. The scythe cut his body. He tried to dodge. The fire didn't help distinguish where the attacks came from. It didn't help me either. I missed a lot. I was just swinging my weapon like a blind mad man.

And then the fire started to burn out. My body slowed down. The heir got away from me. I could see cuts all over his body. But he was still standing straight, proud and powerful, just as when the fight had started.

I dragged my feet. Just one more cut.

"You fought well." He said. His voice sounded so far away from me. My surroundings looked like they were swaying around. "You were a worthy opponent. I hope we can fight again someday."

'_I'm not out.'_ I thought to myself. I brought my scythe up.

"One last strike, huh?" He said, he sounded impressed.

The wolves were howling. Filo's cry reached me. I could hear Laura's determined and Walburga's excited screams mixing with mine. Power flowed through my body. One last strike.

[Legion]

**[}-o-{]**

**General POV**

[Legion]

An eerie voice whispered, the sound traveling all over the battlefield. Sounded like a million voices coming together. Then, the weight of the world seemed to fall on the unsuspecting members of the Agares team and a very surprised Bael heir and his Pawn.

Seth's body seemed to blur out of existence and appear behind the heir of the Great King. Cuts appeared all over the body of said Bael adding to the existing ones. The Queen fell to his knees, the coat that covered his body disappeared. The two-handed scythe changed back to its chain form and soon followed the example of the piece of clothing.

[The Queen of the Agares team retires.] Sounded the monotone voice that announced for the teams inside the game. Outside the commentators and the public where either speechless or cheering out loud.

"_And remember."_ The words of their Queen echoed through the minds of every Agares member. They remembered, indeed. _"We will win."_

Iorek knew his objective. He knew what he had to do. Before the golden lion could regain his focus, the baby behemoth clashed against him. _'Keep him away from the King.'_ Was the plan. Iorek would follow the plan.

Everyone else charged at the Bael heir.

The first to strike was the magic specialized Pawn. She had her magic reserves almost full. Putting every last bit of it into the spell she was casting she added her Twice Critical to it. It was difficult to tell the difference between a Lightning cannon or an actual beam of pure, destructive energy.

When the energy disappeared, there he was. Still standing. His body covered in a thin layer of energy, Touki. The cuts left by the Queen and the little burns left by the magic already healing. Without any energy left in her, the Pawn fell to the ground with her consciousness fading.

[A Pawn of the Agares team retires.]

The next to arrive was a sand covered teen and a girl with purple flames covering her arms. The black-eyed desert guardian was punched away. Having been almost out already before the attack, light started to cover his body. The holy flames of the Rook connected in a strong punch on the heir's back. Strong for anyone that wasn't him. He took it, the burn in his back noticeable but otherwise irrelevant. It didn't heal as the other injuries, but it didn't matter. The Rook was kicked away. Disappearing almost at the same time as the auburn-haired boy.

[A Pawn and a Rook of the Agares team retires.]

A desperate Knight appeared in the air. He fell onto Bael, stabbing his back with a Poison enhanced longsword and a holy weapon. The heir of the Great King gave a firm shake to his body, throwing off the swordsman. Before the man could even hit the ground, he was stomped by a foot that could just as well have been a mountain.

[The Knight of the Agares team retires.]

Four Knives fell to the ground around the heir. Lightning emerged from them, shocking the monster of a man. They did little more than sting.

The second swordsman of the group and the spear wielder had finally reached their foe. The former cut a leg while the latter pierced the other. Both of them found their heads in the hands of their enemy before they could even process what was happening. Both of them where smashed against the ground.

[The remaining Pawns and Rook of the Agares team retire.]

Iorek had tried. He truly had. But his opponent was a Longinus. He had lasted long, longer than the living Sacred Gear had thought he would. Regulus had been impressed, but not impressed enough to spare the cub.

A prison of energy surrounded the lion. Turning his head, he saw the Bishop of the enemy team holding her staff Sacred Gear in front of her. Looking at him with determination in her eyes.

The lion charged at the barrier putting all the strength he could in his legs. The prison cracked like glass, but he didn't stop. His paw met sent the Bishop against a wall.

[The Bishops of the Agares team retire.]

Sairaorg had dealt with the other, the lion guessed. Both King and Pawn walked until both of them were standing next to each other. The lion was tired. The first Bishop and the Rook had been troublesome to deal with.

The Bael heir wasn't faring much better. He had stopped healing his wounds with Touki. He couldn't anymore. He hadn't been this roughed up in a long time. Not even against the Red Dragon Emperor. Although, to be fair, he hadn't been able to work together with Regulus this time.

The pair looked at each other. They looked worse than after that match. Both did.

"It was a good match, Seekvaira." Bael said turning to his fellow King.

Said King was facing him and his Pawn. Barely getting over her shock. Shook because her Queen had been taken out like that. Shook because her peerage had been taken out like that. Shook because Sairaorg Bael had done all that and was still standing, hurt but not even limping.

Said heir of the Great King had to give her credit. Even if she didn't stand a chance, she didn't look the least bit scared after she got over her shock.

"You are braver than I thought." Sairaorg pointed out impressed.

"I wouldn't be able to look at him if I broke down here." She stated, her voice sounding calmer than one would think. Calmer than she was on the inside, that was for sure.

"He is an impressive man. How long has he been training?"

"He started two years before the meeting."

The Great King heir was even more impressed than before. Two years. That power obtained in just two years. He could even catch up to him. A grin started forming in the face of the male King, spreading wider and wider until it almost split his face.

"That's amazing." He commented. "I thought the Red Dragon Emperor would do. But he doesn't have the drive. No, your Queen, he is perfect." Seekvaira just stared, waiting for her foe to make sense. "He will be my rival." He announced. "I hope we get an opportunity to fight each other in the future."

"I'm sure he will appreciate the compliment. He is not a battle-maniac like you though." The Agares heiress stated, as if she wasn't insulting the monster in front of her.

"That's a shame." Said Bael, not the least bit bothered by the girl's comment about him. "Maybe we can have a friendly Rating Game sometime in the future."

"I'm sure that can be arranged." Conceded Seekvaira.

"But for now." The Bael heir took a stance, ready to charge at the Agares heiress. Regulus besides him crouched, ready to jump too.

"Yes, I think it's time to finish this." A circle appeared in front of the female King and a barrage of Wind blades assaulted the monster of a man and the Longinus Sacred Gear.

[Seekvaira Agares retires.]

**[} Chapter End {]**

**Hey guys! How's it going?**

**I impressed myself with how fast I got this chapter. I was going to make you guys wait until Monday since I travel tomorrow but what can I say. **

**I am a generous god.**

**Although, I have to say. Do you guys like Cliff-Hangers? Because damn, I got a lot more reviews a lot faster than normal. Maybe I'll write them more often.**

**Did I underpower Sairaorg? That's my only concern in this chapter. Because you can never overpower him. He is Sairaorg. One could make him defeat Sirzechs and it wouldn't look overpowered… well, maybe not **_**that**_** but you get what I mean.**

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	22. Welcome to the Masquerade

**Thanks to DarkDrawerJ, Tobi is a Gooder Boy, OnetimeMuffin, HaMiroKar420, TheAbyssWatcher, Ragnas Bredvolts, Rigald02, HeyRawj, Saint-Leiker, Ashborn2271, Raphaim and guests for the reviews.**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Highschool DxD, neither do I own any of the multiple resources that I will use for the story in the form of (but not limited to) references.

**Young Devil Gathering Arc – Welcome to the Masquerade**

**Seth POV**

I woke up from the darkness once more. I felt like a truck had hit my head full force. Which, considering everything, it would have been better. Little by little the memories of the Game came back. I looked around, there was nobody around. That was strange.

No, I wasn't alone. There was someone, someone I didn't know. I groaned.

"Mr. Jerome?" The person asked.

"Ye…" I tried to answer. My throat felt so dry.

"Drink this." She put a glass of water in my lips and I drank. Not long after that I started to feel alive again. My sense came back to me.

"Was I so bad that I didn't get to have visitors?" I asked after a while.

"Yes, Touki enhanced punches tend to leave more damage. They not only damage your body but also your life force. Most of the time the body deals with said damage on its own. This time though, it seemed to do more damage than normal. You had bad luck." She explained.

"So, that's why I can't open my eye, huh? Or is it just not working?" I asked way calmer than I was in the inside. Had I lost my eye forever?

"You are basically temporarily blind from one eye now. It will take some time for your life force to heal that injury naturally. If you can get a Senjutsu user to help, then you should have you eye back within the year. If not, then it will take a while longer." _'Bael, you are one crazy bastard.'_ At least I hadn't lost my eye permanently.

"The others?" I asked.

"Everyone else is fine." I let out a sigh in relief. "They have been waiting for you to wake up actually." I knew, there would be someone waiting. Most probably Seek or Lucie, or both. Maybe Liam too.

"You can let whoever it is that's waiting in." I said.

"Of course, Mr. Jerome." She said and after noting some things she left. It was a good thing she didn't tell me I had to wait. I would have been annoyed. And with that I mean the violent type of annoyed. Maybe they knew that. Seek would have warned them, I supposed. Not a minute later Lucie and Seek came into the room. I had to suppress a snort.

"Hey girls, did I miss much?" I asked them. Lucie looked down as soon as our eyes locked, that made me scowl. I turned to Seek, and she looked nervous too. "We lost, huh?" I asked and Lucie actually winced. I let out a long sigh. "Get everyone here." I told Seek, she just nodded and gave me an appreciative smile. She knew what I was going to do.

After a while and more than a little convincing, the doctors let me sit on a bench outside the hospital for a minute. I was ok for Maou's sake. I only had some trouble walking and standing straight. But I was fine, I swear. The peerage was standing around me and Seek was sitting beside me holding my hand. Nobody was looking at me, all of them were looking at the ground.

"Stop looking at the floor." I told them. The peerage turned to look at me or tried to. No one was able to hold my gaze for more than a second. I waited. I knew it would come. It took two full minutes for Liam to crack.

"We are so-"

"If you apologize, I'm going to freeze you." I interrupted letting my magic leek out of my body. The temperature dropped significantly. "If someone apologizes, I'm going to be mad." I added. Everyone looked nervous.

"Now, tell me one thing." I started. "Is there something someone could have done better?" I asked, after a while everyone started shaking their heads. "Did someone slack off in their training?" I asked again, again everyone shook their heads. "Then why are you looking down?" I asked.

"We lost." Alan said. "You almost killed yourself against Bael. You won't recover your eye for a year or more. And we still weren't able to win." He explained.

"So, what?" I asked. "It doesn't matter." All of them looked at me dumbfounded, all but Seek that was looking at me with a small smile. "We lost, that's something that happens. There's no shame in that." I told them. Then I took a deep breath in.

"There's going to be people stronger than us for a long time. It will take us more than a few years to be the freest people in the world." I explained. "So, don't be ashamed to lose. I didn't tattoo these flames because I lost." I pointed at the tattoo in my shoulder. "I tattooed this because I wanted to remember that I need to be stronger to protect the peerage. I tattooed these chains because I have to remember to always control myself." I pointed at my arms. "I let Xander tattoo that sword because he was ashamed of losing a duel of swords. Alan because he was ashamed, he never got to protect his comrades. And Liam because he was ashamed, he couldn't protect Lucie."

"Xander and Liam are getting their tattoos removed by the way." I said. Both seemed about the object. "It's final, being weak is not something to be ashamed of." I said firmly. "Not having the drive to be stronger is what you should be ashamed of." I explained. I let that sink in for a second. "And we have the drive. I know we have it, every single one of us. So, shut up and look up. We should be proud of how far we have come."

"With that said," I started, everyone looked at me, directly this time. Good. "If we lose against the pervert's team, I will freeze you all and feed you to the wolves." Said pack barked their approval in my head. I summoned Bellatrix behind me. She liked to terrorize people. I must admit she looked menacing. Everyone seemed to be sweating bullets suddenly.

"Also," I started. "Does the eye look bad?" I asked out of nowhere, everyone sweat dropped. And like that the tense atmosphere was gone. Sometimes these guys are too serious.

"It doesn't look bad." Seek said following my game. "It _is_ a bit scary." Bellatrix barked approvingly.

I summoned an Ice mirror to look at myself. There was a scar all over my eye and a bit of the left side of my face. It looked like a burn scare but darker. I put a hand over that side of my face and covered the area with a layer of Ice and made it opaque. When I took the hand off my face, it looked like I had a sort of mask blocking my eye, less disgusting but equally scary in my opinion.

"Better." Seek said kissing my right cheek. I smiled.

"Now, how about you tell me how everything went?" And like that everyone told me their versions of the Game. Liam and Lucie beamed at me when I praised them. They had done amazingly. Ayumi had done better than expected, actually. She was one of the weakest of the team after all. Incinerate Anthem could only do so much after all and considering that she couldn't use magic at long range very well, she had definitely gotten better results than expected.

When I mentioned training, everyone seemed uncomfortable again. I understood when they told me that a week had passed. I had lost a week of training and probably I would lose more time. Then was the fact that I had to get used to only having one eye. What a pain it was going to be.

The others had already started. There weren't many surprises to be honest. Trina said she was feeling her Sacred Gear strange from time to time when she practiced Senjutsu. We were hoping she would achieve Balance Breaker, but it was unlikely that I happened for the match against Gremory.

Her Senjutsu was coming along nicely. Sadly, she wasn't near the level where she could help me with my eye yet. That was disappointing but understandable. Using Senjutsu to heal another person's life force was really advanced. It was way easier to affect one's own energy, next step was just messing with someone else's life force. But, actually doing it delicately enough to not damage them, let alone heal, was a really hard and complex thing to do. By the time Trina achieved that level my life force would have long since healed naturally.

Alan had thrown himself into magic reserve training. The match against Bael had pointed out that flaw in his style and he was going to correct it. Xander for his part was working extra in his illusions. Those were his edge, he needed them to work. He said he was trying to take them to the next level. Whatever that was. His face reminded me of Dovray's when he had started developing his knives.

Brittney had started to work on something to use her magic in close range. She was heavily inclined to long range so something to use against close combatants would be good. Trina was the opposite. The latter was trying to use her Senjutsu in long range. She would need it in case she couldn't get close to someone.

Liam for his part had started his own monstrous training, literally. My little bro had started training against Iorek. I wanted to wipe a metaphorical prideful tear at that. My little bro was all grown up. He looked really embarrassed when I said that though.

Lucie was back to increasing her reserves and she also wanted to push the reach of her Sacred Gear. Seek had gotten into contact with Azazel and the crazy Sacred Gear obsessed Fallen Angel Governor was eager to study- erm, help Lucie with her gear.

Dovray was working on his reserves too. He would need them to fully take advantage of the Flash Knives. Apart from that he didn't have much to do apparently. He was just improving his arrays and traps as always.

Ayumi had been working in a bit of everything. She had to get her basics up to the standards of the team after all.

Seek for her part had worked on both her trait and affinity. That was when she wasn't by my side. She had blushed up a storm when Liam and Lucie pointed that out to me. She was clearly embarrassed, and I don't think my kiss on her cheek helped. If I wasn't still recovering, I think I would have faced a Wind barrage because of it.

She had also looked around like mad to find someone advance enough in Senjutsu to help me. She hadn't had luck though. The relations with the Youkai faction had improved but not enough for them to lend us a near Master level Senjutsu practitioner. My eye would have to heal naturally, it seemed. That could take anywhere between two years to five, the doctors had said.

During my next week in the hospital there were a couple of unexpected visits. First was Lord Azazel and Lord Beelzebub, both insisted in just be called Azazel and Ajuka respectively. Both had come to talk about the latest revelation about my Sacred Gear, Legion.

In the end we concluded very little. It was something along the lines of Juggernaut Drive or Breakdown the Beast. It was a massive boost of everything for me. The problem was that there was no easy way to achieve it. I needed to be in full coordination with each and every soul inside my gear at the same time.

All that was speculation though. We had no way to prove anything of it besides the boost thing. Everything else would have to wait until it activated again, if ever. I was pretty sure we were right about the full coordination thing. The full extent of the state though, I wasn't sure at all. A simple boost was strange, especially considering that the Balance Breaker did exactly that. Another mode that did exactly the same was a bit lacking.

I knew my gear, there had to be something else.

During my extra week in the hospital I had many visits. I had to kick out the peerage after the first two days in a row. They needed the time to train. I seriously didn't want to lose against the Oppai Dragon. I shuddered just thinking about that. Seek though, she would have none of that. She continued coming once a day for the rest of the week. Sometimes twice. Seek's parents visit was appreciated too. Juven and Viltaria had assured me that if they could they would find a Senjutsu user to help me.

The others visited once each. I took time to praise Lucie, Liam and Leo for their progress in their training. Xander, Alan, Ayumi and Britteny was an interesting affair. We had a more serious relationship than with the others, be we had a good time teasing each other for our weaknesses. I won those metaphorical battles by the way. Trina had spent almost an entire afternoon playing her guitar for me. I loved to hear her play. Dovray and I spent a couple of hours talking about inconsequential stuff and I made him promise to tell Iorek that I would be playing with him as soon as possible. I missed the cub.

Sona had surprisingly visited twice. Both times we had some pretty intense chess games. She seemed intent on getting to Seek and my level. She took pride in her chess skills after all. Us beating her had struck a never apparently. However, I had caught her smiling. I guessed part of it was that she hardly had any challenging people to play against.

Sairaorg had come to, and to his credit he did look ashamed when I told him my eye wasn't going to recover anytime soon. I told him it was fine. I wasn't going to lie and tell him it didn't matter. It did, but to my knowledge he hadn't done it on purpose, so I couldn't bring myself to hate the guy.

Besides that, we had some interesting chats about battles. He was a true battle maniac and while I wasn't quite on that level, I did enjoy the thrill of it too. I blamed the wolves for that. I could hear Regulus mocking bark in my head at that.

Walburga seemed to enjoy those chats with the Bael heir. She wasn't a battle maniac. She just really enjoyed violence, and Sairaorg's battles had a lot of that. She even provided her own stories here and there. It was strange seeing the crazy bitch act friendly.

It was nice to have Sairaorg and Sona visit, Tsubaki had accompanied Sona once too. It was nice having friends. And I wasn't trying to insult the peerage. But they were like family to me. The closest thing I would have to a family, I guessed. They were my brothers and sisters. But like every family, it was nice to have a group of people not related to spent time with. I would probably visit Sona and Sairaorg sometime before the match with Gremory. They were good people. It would also help our standing in the Devil society so that was a nice plus too, but I barely added that as an afterthought.

Besides that, I did little else. They barely let me work on my circles. I was going crazy by the second, I swear. I took advantage of that though. There was something that I had had in mind for a long time now and I was going to work on it. I had contacted both Azazel and Ajuka to see if they could help me. They were so eager to do so that I was sure I could have asked for payment and they would have accepted anyway. Scientists were weird.

They had also expressed some ideas of their own. One of them involving Legion looked promising. I would work on that as soon as possible. Azazel also had an interesting idea of his own:

"You see, I can't get out of my head the Incinerate Anthem incident with you gear." He explained. "I was thinking, what if it wasn't related with Incinerate Anthem's free will?" He added after a second. That got me thinking. Could my Sacred Gear work as a distributor of gears?

"That's why I brought this." Azazel said lifting a briefcase. "This is a Low-tier Sacred Gear I got my hands on some time ago, Heir's Challenge." And then I got a look at it. It was a pair of arm guards of what looked like bronze with some feather designs on the ends towards the elbows.

"The use is simple. It separates the user and the target from the world for a duel. The thing is, none of the 'duelists' can end the life of the other while in that realm. The 'duel' ends when one of the fighters is unconscious." He explained. That was an interesting ability if nothing else.

"What I want you to do," He started when I was done ogling the gear. "is summon your gear and see if it will absorb this one as it did with Incinerate Anthem." I looked at him strangely.

"If that works, you will lose this Sacred Gear." I said questioningly.

"Well." He said scratching his head. "I know, but your group has been a delight for researching. Having a subspecies Sacred Gear that not only deviates during Balance Breaker was and still is amazing. Also, your Sacred Gear has been a figurative gold mine for me and those that work for me. The things you do with you gear shouldn't even be possible. You are stretching the capabilities of your Sacred Gear more with each passing second. I want to see how far you get. This not only helps with that but also serves as a kind of repayment."

It made sense I guessed. It was still strange to receive something like that. Of course, first we had to test his theory. It proved right. As soon as I touched the guards with the lantern the gear disappeared, and I found it floating in a golden light inside the mindscape. Azazel had been positively delighted.

But that was nothing for what was to come. After that I tried something during my talk with Azazel. I tried to use Heir's Challenge. It worked. I was pretty sure that had our setting not being a hospital, the Fallen Angel Governor would have bounced around to his hearts content. He looked like a child that was told every day of the year was going to be Christmas.

Then I was released. I couldn't do much for the first week. Seek had gotten me some coordination exercises to start dealing with my one-eyed vision. During normal activities it didn't show, most of the time anyway. But during battles I was sure it would mess up with my form. I had started in my say at the hospital but once I was out, I went full on with it.

I was right.

Lacking vision from one eye really messed up with my fighting skills. I had to train a lot just to get back to my normal self. And even then, I had to do some light battles to give my coordination the last tweaks before I could be top form for the next hour or so. To say it was frustrating would have been the biggest understatement in the world.

Hyoudou had to fall before me. There was no other way around it. I would be involved one way or another. Fortunately for us, Seek had another counter for him. If it worked as expected it would be hilarious. Gremory would fall so hard on her face that I was sure I would end up laughing hysterically.

"So, you say, but I fail to see how you could stop Issei-kun." Sona said during my first visit to her. We were playing a chess game in the Student Council room of her school. Her peerage looked torn between doing their work and watching our game. Her Pawn looked at me with obvious jealousy, it was amusing.

"Yeah, we are not sure it's going to work though. That's the main reason we don't talk too much about it." I explained making my move. "It's like, the most stupid thing ever. But if it works." I couldn't help the savage grin that appeared in my face. I think I scared the shit out of several members of her peerage. Even she looked a little scared. "If it works, we are going to have some fun." Some of them shivered. It was fun looking at them squirm at just my expression and voice. "The little dragon doesn't even know what's coming his way."

"By the way," I returned my expression to a more normal one. "How are you preparing for Sairaorg?" I asked. Some of her peerage members tensed at that.

"We have been training a lot more since our match." She explained. "But we already know there's going to be little chance for a victory."

"Don't say that Kaichou. We still have a chance!" The Pawn said. I decided to ignore him.

"You are right. I would say you have a one percent chance at victory." I stated. She was looking intently at me. I was focusing casually on the board before looking at her. "My advice is, show your strengths. This tournament is all about showing off. Show the world were your and your peerage's strengths lie. You don't need to win, just prove that you are not a pushover." She nodded and focused on the board.

Silence stretched for a few minutes until we finished another game. Another victory for me. It felt great. Seek's winning streak had been broken not so long ago. But every game against my girlfriend was a struggle for supremacy. It was nice to have an easy win here and there. No offense to Sona though. Said Sitri heiress sighed and started setting her pieces back in place for another round.

"Yes, I had been thinking about approaching it like that. It's probably for the best." She said before a small smile graced her face. "Thanks to you and Seekvaira we will have our dream come true anyway." She added with no small amount of relief. I smiled at her.

"We had our own reasons." I said waving my hand to avoid her gratitude, it had become a usual thing. "Also, I think it's best if I go now. I don't want to be late." I said with a smirk and she gave me a knowing smile. "I just got out of the hospital. I don't want to be sent back there by Seek."

"See you next time then."

"Of course. Also, you should smile more. That would set you up there with Gremory in the beauty department." I said while activating the teleporting circle. "See you later guys!" I waved at everyone before disappearing.

**[}-o-{]**

Our match against Gremory had been postponed much to our chagrin. We didn't want to give them more time to achieve their off-the-wall developments. We would have to deal with that anyway it seemed.

The excuse had been simple. Seek, Sairaorg, Sona and Gremory were rising stars in the Underworld. The public called them 'The Four Novice Kings'. Not only that but Sairaorg, Hyoudou and I were also rising figures of power.

I had already received an invitation to play a role in Lady Leviathan's show. I would have found it disturbing, but that was before I had come to know that the Oppai Dragon's show was a thing. Now I was actually considering it. Being the Hero of the children didn't sound half bad and it had little drawbacks. I could be fun.

But I digress, the thing is, the organizers of the Games decided that having the Bael vs Sitri and Gremory vs Agares too close to each other could be bad for the views. So, they would play the Bael vs Sitri first and a month later we would have the Gremory vs Agares. Apparently, it was the Game that garnered the most attention.

I wasn't complaining as much as I normally would. The reason for that was that a project of mine required some work from my part and I was glad to have more time to make it happen. It had been surprisingly fruitful for such a short time to work on it. Merely a month and a half since I was out of the hospital and I already had it working. It required great effort on my part, but it worked. Project Deadly Sins was a thing. Seek and I barely could suppress our smirks.

The Game against Gremory would be fun, if nothing else.

**[} Chapter End {]**

**Hey guys! How's it going?**

Hi everyone, for all intents and purposes I'm Adrian. I'm going to write some things that may interest you and some that you could definitely care less. I hope you bear with me.

Now, first of all, for those who know and remember, I'm back from my little trip. Sadly, it doesn't mean more updates, at least I don't think so.

The thing is, I'm dealing with some shit on my side of the screen. That means one of two things. First option, I'm gonna have to take some time to deal with life. Second option, and probably the most likely to happen, is that I will fall on my favorite escape mechanism, read, and now, write. Which is good for you guys.

Ending the sappy talking, I wanted to say that you guys are awesome. **133 Favorites, 165 Followers, **an average of **400** **Views** per chapter and, since chapter 14, I haven't gotten less than **8** **Reviews** per chapter. You guys… I don't even know where to begin. You don't know how much it cheers me up to see the stats on both my stories. Especially right now.

Thirdly, I wanted to say that my head is a mess of ideas right now. I have started ideas for **1 extra DxD series**, **2 Harry Potter series** and maybe one more soon, **2 Naruto series** and **1 Pokemon series**. That's not even mentioning the ideas I just come up in my head. I could probably start another 4 DxD series, not to mention others.

What I want to say with this is, **Project 71** may not even come out anytime soon. It could be replaced with one of those ideas or even a new one. What I know is that I will probably do the final decision when I finish this story. I would make a Poll for that, but polls don't seem to be a good idea. Both the ones I have made ended in catastrophic failure.

Anyway, I think I have talked enough shit for one day.

**See you.**

**PS: Should I write the notes as I did today or continue with the full Bold writing?**


	23. Fire Up the Night

**Thanks to Raphaim, HeyRawj, Rigald02, HaMiroKar420, Saint-Leiker, Rodvek97, TheAbyssWatcher, Ragnas Bredvolts, reader0007, GaM3Ov3R, mnorsyafiq92, OnetimeMuffin and duckie288 for the reviews.**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Highschool DxD, neither do I own any of the multiple resources that I will use for the story in the form of (but not limited to) references.

**Young Devil Gathering Arc – Fire Up the Night**

**Seth POV**

The Bael vs Sitri match was interesting. They gave the pair a normal set of rules. That was fortunate for Sona, it allowed her to show her strength, strategy. And show it she did. We also theorized that Sairaorg might have been humoring her a little, specially at the end.

Sona had decided to play for show instead of playing to win, as I recommended. It proved to be good for her. Her popularity levels shot up. The Vritra user, Saji, had climbed to just below Sairaorg, Hyoudou and my level of power, in the eyes of the public at least.

Her strategy was simple. She had worked to separate the Bael team and create separate battles, most of them being against her Pawn. Every piece worked on that. Every piece showed something. The Rook and Knight restrained the teammates while one fought. The Bishops stopped attacks from the outsiders. All this only _if_ there was someone else. Something that considering Sona's ability for scheming only happened once each. Even her Single-Piece pawn had shown promise while battling one of Sairaorg's Bishops. She had ultimately lost but considering her level and the Bael piece's level, it had been an impressive fight.

In the end they had failed to get past Regulus and Abaddon, but all the other pieces had fallen. There weren't any more rumors about Sona not being quite on the level of the other Four Novice Kings anymore.

"You should be proud. That was an impressive show of strength and intelligence." I complimented her at the first visit I gave her after the Game.

"Thanks." She gave me a small smile. "Your advice before the game was appreciated." She added before turning to me. "I know I have asked this before. But what do you have prepared to face Rias?" She asked. She almost sounded concerned. Her peerage seemed more than interested in my answer. As all the other times.

"Don't worry about us." I dismissed looking straight at her eyes. They widened as they saw mine change colors. "The world doesn't know half my tricks." I crazed grin appeared in my face. Hers paled as her pupils shrunk in fear. There were few that could look at me in the eye when I did that and not at the very least show some fear. Some of my opponents had fallen on their butts out of panic. Poor Xander still couldn't look at me in the face out of embarrassment.

"I see…" She said once she recovered and my eye returned to normal. "Always full of surprises." She added. I took that as a compliment although she sounded half-annoyed. Surprises were the bane of strategists after all. Ironically, they were also their best ally.

"Why, thank you." I smirked at her and her eye twitched.

"Sona-Kaichou is flirting again~" The Single-Pawn sing sang. Sona's cheeks reddened as she tried desperately to focus her attention in the board.

"I would be careful, Sona." I warned with a smirk. "If your Pawn says something like that in front of Seek, she may go ballistic." All color drained from her face at that. Seek's Wind magic was getting as infamous as the Power of Destruction from Gremory. And that's why no one expected her trait's power.

Seek was ecstatic that she could hide an ability as obvious as her trait. It wasn't to say that our opponents forgot she had it. But all of them dismissed it, thinking it wasn't as dangerous as her Wind. Kind of like all of them thought my Ice wasn't as dangerous as anything else. To be fair, it was true that neither was that strong. But they couldn't be dismissed.

We were betting in Gremory dismissing Seek's trait. If she did then that would be one of her greatest mistakes.

"Talking about that." I turned to Nimura, the Single-Piece Pawn. "How's it going with your boyfriend?" I asked looking for a second at Saji, the Vritra Pawn. The girl blushed up a storm and started stammering. The guy looked confused, obviously he hadn't picked up on what I implied. "Still not there, huh?" I clicked my tongue as the others started giggling at her reaction. Except for Hanakai, she had a frown in her face. Maybe I would tease her next.

"That should teach you not to mess with your King, Ruruko." Sona said with not a small amount of amusement in her eyes. Poor Nimura couldn't do anything but hung her head in shame.

"Well. I think this will be the last game." I said moving a piece. Sona looked at me questioningly and with a hint of disappointment in her face. I usually stayed for much longer. "I scheduled a spar against Sairaorg later today. The man is eager to taste some of my new power." I said.

When I called to ask the Bael heir if we could have a spar or two to test a new technique the guy had jumped at the chance. Apparently, he didn't have many people to spar against, even his peerage didn't get to be more than a warmup. So, having me to train against was a blessing for him. It was a blessing for me too, at least now that I didn't necessarily have to hide anything from him.

The Great King's heir had been ecstatic that I could match him much better than during our game. The new ability I had gotten was nothing short of amazing. Legion was amazing but it's watered down version was equally insane. The Sins were a great power up. Especially the ones I had a somewhat good control of.

"I'll come for a longer visit later this week. Maybe I'll bring one of the young ones or Seek. The kids could use some time away from Agares Manor." I added.

"You know they are only a couple of years younger than you, don't you?" She asked with an amused smile on her face.

"So? It will be a thousand years from now and they will still be the young ones for me. Same as Iorek being just an oversized puppy even if he gets as big as a mountain." I said with a grin. She just shook her head as a reply, and we continued our game of chess.

**[}-o-{]**

The entrance to the place where our Game would be held had been quite different from the others. There had been a multitude of Devils gathered to welcome us. Our status as rising celebrities showed then more than ever. I even had to sign some autographs for a couple of kids. It was awkward but at least it wasn't in a bad way.

We were just not used to the attention.

A kid had asked to ride Iorek. The insulted bark he answered with had been amusing. But even more so had been when he had ultimately caved when I asked him to let the child do so. The smile on the little boy's face was priceless. Maybe I would participate in Leviathan's show if it made the kids smile like that.

The good mood lasted until they told us what the Game rules were.

"Are they serious?" I asked incredulous. This had to be some kind of joke.

"They are." Seek said, annoyance dripping from her tone.

Dice Figure. We were playing Dice Figure _again_. I wanted to curse them all. This was stupid. Our team had had to play three games that relied more on strength than strategy. And one of them repeated. Not to mention that we couldn't even truly enjoy the strategic one we had gotten because it was against another strategist rather than a power idiot.

"They probably want to showcase the strength of both groups." Seek explained. "The public adores you and… the Oppai Dragon." She spat the name as if it was the most awful thing her mouth had tasted. "Not to mention our team is strong and so is theirs. The organizers want to show that strength to the public. Strategic games are interesting for experts but not so much for a general public, especially kids. Especially considering Hyoudou is a hero for the children of the Underworld."

It made sense. Gremory vs Bael had had a great number of views. Dice Figure rules were simple, and they allowed for the whole team to show strength. Especially if both Kings had good fighters in their peerages, as Seek had pointed out. The random factor of the dices gave the public a sense of expectation towards each match. It was like seeing a lot of mini-Games fought between a lower number of pieces.

It also helped that there wouldn't be many battles overlapping each other. That way the public could see everything or at least most of what happened. For a show-type of Game it was the best.

It made sense. But that didn't mean I had to like it. Although being fair, I was mostly annoyed at the chance that Hyoudou could be pitted against Seek or Lucie, or any other female of the team for that matter. If he did something perverted against any of them, … _'I may kill him'_. That wouldn't be good, but there would be nothing short of a Maou to stop me if he dared.

"Guys, I want that shame of a Dragon out as soon as possible." I said, my eye turning amber for a second. They all nodded.

The Kings values had been the same as previous games. Five for Seek and eight for Gremory. No Phoenix Tears allowed this time. I guessed it was due to both teams having Twilight Healing in their groups. It would made sense if that was their reasoning at least.

[If the Kings would please throw the dices?] The referee asked. I could almost hear the public screaming.

Five and Five. Ten. The disadvantage of not having Single-Pieced Pawns showed for Gremory. She couldn't send Hyoudou because it would waste two pieces. Same as a Knight/Bishop and Rook combo. She could only send in her two Rooks or risk losing point advantage.

"You think she'll risk it?" I asked.

"Doubt it. The Nekoshou is a pure close combatant while the Valkyrie is a magic specialist. It's a good combination." She said.

"So, Iorek and who?" I asked. Iorek was pretty much a given. The baby behemoth was one the few that could take a Senjutsu-powered strike and shrug it off.

"Iorek, Lucie, Xander and Trina. Iorek will take the Nekoshou and the others the Valkyrie." All of them nodded.

The Valkyrie was a tricky one. She had multiple affinities for magic. That was extremely rare. I was still wondering how Gremory managed to get her hands on all those amazing individuals. We were betting on Lucifer's influence in _some_ of them at the very least, if not all of them.

[The Gremory team sends in both their Rooks while the Agares team sends in a Rook, a Bishop and two Pawns!] The referee announced for us. It was a battle of mascots I realized as I considered the public opinion for this match. The Nekoshou was considered the Gremory team's mascot as was Iorek's spot in ours.

[Let's have a good match.] The Valkyrie said with a polite smile.

[… Good luck.] Was the Nekoshou's impassive response.

[Same for you.] Lucie answered with her usual warm smile. Xander bowed slightly in respect and Trina waved. Iorek gave an enthusiastic bark. I knew it had to be at least half-faked, the cub had been itching to show his strength. Being taken out during the Sitri Game and losing against Regulus had been a hit to his pride.

[The first match starts now!]

Lucie summoned her staff and instantly imprisoned both Rooks with a pair of barriers. Iorek charged at the white-haired Nekoshou as she tried to break free from the spell. The Valkyrie fired a flamethrower at the prison. Said 'spell' vanished. It had been an illusion from Xander. The Nekoshou's one was pretty much real though.

Trina ran up to the silver-haired Valkyrie. The woman blocked our Pawn's spear with her sword but was pushed back. She regained her standing just in time to block another blow, this time from our illusion user.

On the other side Lucie had vanished the prison as soon as the Valkyrie was pushed away. Iorek almost impaled the Rook with his horns but was dodged receiving what we guessed was a Senjutsu-powered punch to the side. It barely phased him. One of his paws shot to the side getting the white-haired girl and sending her to a wall. Iorek charged again.

Our Pawn duo was having trouble with the Valkyrie, no surprise there, really. They weren't the best woman warriors of the Nordic pantheon for nothing. But they were holding their ground pretty well. Lucie was doing her best to contain the spells of the woman. I couldn't help but praise my little sister. Holding a multi-affinity user back was difficult. She had to adapt her barriers to each affinity on the spot, that was no easy feat.

We already knew this was going to be a difficult Game. It was showing in the very first match. The Gremory group was conformed of monsters. Monsters that developed frighteningly fast. Maybe a couple of months back we would have had an easier time, as with Bael's peerage. But they grew frighteningly fast. It was as astounding as it was annoying.

Xander got cut in one arm. It was ridiculous how the Valkyrie could fire spells left and right without seemingly giving them so much as a thought. She was fighting both Xander and Trina at the same time she fired them for Maou's sake. She kicked Trina away and went full on battle against Xander. The poor guy could barely hold his ground. He jumped back and cast his illusions. From where he was standing, he separated into five pictures of himself. Two circled the white-haired woman from the left and two from the right while one stayed in place.

Trina was getting back in her feet. Lucie connected a tendril of energy to her to patch what little wounds she had up while keeping an eye out for spells.

All of Xander illusions charged and the Valkyrie put up her guard. The Xander in the middle went for her shin as she blocked the ones on her left. He got her. She smirked and swung her blade at the Xander in the middle, her sword passed right through him making him disappear, much to her surprise.

I smirked where I was sitting. That was Xander's new little trick. An illusion that cause 'pain'. It didn't quite wound the enemies, but it gave them the false feeling of pain where they touched, which made them think it was the real Xander. Giving the Pawn a chance to strike. In this case the Rook got a cut in her back courtesy of the real Xander that had been to her right.

The Pawn jumped back and regrouped with Trina who was as good as new. Lucie connected with Xander this time. They seemed to be going for a battle of endurance. Trina charged in this time.

A blue flame formed at the tip of Trina's spear and shot the Valkyrie who dodged with a shocked expression. The flame burned out before even reaching her though. Trina wasn't even near the level to actually use Senjutsu flames to hurt a foe. But it was good enough to fool someone.

The Valkyrie didn't seem to appreciate the humor though. This time she was quick enough to block the blow and start her own barrage with her sword. Magic circles appeared everywhere, and Lucie had to stop healing Xander to stop them all. I frowned. The silver-haired woman had started to fight seriously. This could be bad.

And bad it was.

It didn't take long for Lucie to start sweating bullets. Her reserves were burning out, the Valkyrie didn't look like she could keep it up for long though. The problem was that she hadn't taken any more strikes from either Pawn. Xander was breathing hard and Trina could barely keep a hold of her spear. Both of them were covered in small and some not so small cuts. Unfortunately, the pressure on my little sister didn't allow her to heal them. The Bishop had enough in her plate stopping the spells that would do some more serious damage to her fellow peerage members.

The Valkyrie decided it had been enough playing apparently. A myriad of small circles formed around her. I saw Lucie pale as she tried to cast barriers for all of them. I shook my head. She had panicked, she could have put up a big barrier for each element. It would have been easier and more efficient. But she was tired and nervous. She couldn't stop them all in time.

[The Pawns of the Agares team retire.] The referee announced. This was bad.

Lucie was pale but determination hadn't left her eyes. She put her staff up ready to block whatever the Rook threw at her.

I turned to see Iorek, a wave of relief washed over me. The cub didn't look so good though. He was walking with a limp on his front left leg and seemed pretty tired. The Nekoshou for her part was on her last legs. She was limping with her right leg and holding her left arm. Claw marks bleeding here and there. Iorek had done a number on her.

The cub charged and the white-haired girl tried to jump away to Iorek's left. The behemoth made an effort with his wounded leg and pushed himself correcting his aim. His horns pierced the stomach of the Nekoshou.

[A Rook from the Gremory side retires.] Was the announcement this time.

The oversized puppy didn't waste any time. He turned and his eyes shone with rage. Lucie was being victim of a barrage of spells that she barely could resist. The Valkyrie was clearly using her last reserves to take out our Bishop. Iorek charged full speed while growling.

The silver-haired woman paled as she noticed what was coming her way. She put up her sword. That was her first mistake. You don't face Iorek's charge head on. Her second mistake was that she didn't fire any spells to try and slow him down. Although being fair, she probably didn't have the reserves to slow the behemoth down. She probably didn't have the strength behind her spells to achieve that either.

She was sent against a wall. Her sword was sticking out of Iorek's right shoulder. It was a deep wound, I noticed. The growl of Iorek became deeper and he charged once again. I didn't even want to think how he managed to move his front limbs with a wounded left leg and a sword on his right shoulder.

But he charged, much slower than normal but equally as menacing, if the Valkyrie's expression as she tried to stand in her shaky legs was anything to go by.

Iorek impaled her to the wall. Then he slumped to the ground.

[Both Rooks of the Agares and Gremory team retire.] The referee said.

Lucie was teleported back to the room. Nobody said a word. It was technically a win. They had lost two Rooks, ten points. We had lost two Pawns and a Rook, seven points. Nobody looked like it was a victory.

"Rest Lucie." Seek said. "Good job out there. You did amazingly" She complimented. I knew she was trying to lighten her mood. She had made mistakes, but it wasn't the moment nor the place to point them out. My little sister did look better after being praised. She always did.

"It was a good match." Seek continued. "We just have to make sure Xander, Trina and Iorek's efforts weren't in vain." She pointed out. I smirked, for once I wasn't the one to give a speech. Maybe I was rubbing off on her after all this time. Or maybe it was because it was Lucie's match that she was more involved. Maybe both.

All the ones that had retired could be proud. Iorek had taken out an extremely rare type of Youkai that consequently was extremely powerful with Senjutsu by himself. The others had held their ground and tired out a Valkyrie, one of the most powerful warriors the Nordic mythology had. And it was one that was specially gifted in talent and affinities for magic too. This battle was definitely a win in my book.

But this was nothing. In a way we had taken out some of the less troublesome fighters. There was still Ex-Durandal, there was still the Red Dragon Emperor, there was still the Forbidden Balor View. This was just the beginning.

[Would the Kings please throw the dices again?]

I took a deep breath to calm myself. I wasn't nervous. I was excited. I didn't have anything to be nervous about. We wouldn't lose anything. On the other hand, there were some really powerful enemies on the other side. Enemies that would prove, once more, that we weren't weak. We just had to defeat them.

Five and Six. Eleven. High number and they had their Rooks out. But they could send Hyoudou with a Knight or Bishop this time. They probably would be the case. The other option was sending the pair of Knights and a Bishop, but they would lose two points. We didn't expect to face the Red One so soon.

"Seth, Brittney and Liam." Seek called out. I stood up. This was a lot faster than I expected. "Liam, if they send in the Forbidden Balor View enter Balance Breaker as soon as the match starts. That should help you resist the time stop."

That was a blessing. If that Sacred Gear worked as Seek's trait it would have been troublesome. But the fact that someone strong enough could escape the effect was on our side. I was pretty sure Liam could escape it with his Balance Breaker active. If he could there was a small chance that Alan with his sword out and Taming Sari would resist it too. Ayumi was an unknown. We also theorized that Seek's inherent connection with time would help her resist it. Dovray, Lucie and Brittney would fall for the effect though, no doubts there.

"Brittney, stay far away from that pervert." I said.

She nodded and her shoulders seemed to relax. No doubt she was relieved she wouldn't have to face that… I don't even have words to describe the guy besides pervert. I would have to look that up later.

"Well," I started. I closed my eye for a second. When I opened it again, it was lavender. "Let's go out and play."

**[}-o-{]**

**General POV**

[The Agares team sends in their two remaining Pawns and their Queen, the Ice Guardian, the Warden of Dragons! Rias Gremory sends in her Bishop, the wielder of the Forbidden Balor View, and her Pawn! The Sekiryuutei enters the battlefield!]

[Who will be standing in the end, the Red Dragon Emperor or the Warden of Dragons?!]

The public was ecstatic. The battle that everyone wanted to see had arrived much sooner than expected. The powerhouses were facing each other.

On one side, a crossdressing Dhampir hid behind a brown-haired, brown-eyed Japanese boy. The wielder of the Booster Gear looked more serious than he usually did, especially considering there was a girl on the other side.

On the other, a chestnut-haired girl stood next to her fellow Pawn. A boy with spiky auburn hair and green eyes stood on the right of his big brother.

But the attention was on one person. It wasn't what everyone was used to see him as. His hair turned slowly to a platinum color and his only visible eye was lavender-colored, the other one covered by an opaque Ice mask. The look in his eye sending shivers to everyone that dared to look at it. A crazed grin on his face and an even more crazed tone in his voice as he broke the silence.

[Welcome to the party little dragon, little bat! I'm Seth and I will be your host!]

The cloak everyone knew as part of his Balance Breaker appeared but there was no mint green in the sea of blackness this time. The details were painted red. The scythe suffered a similar change, there was no mint green glint on the silver-colored weapon, this time it was red. The flame that burned at the joint between the pole and the blade had a red color as opposed to the usual green.

[Legion: Gluttony of the Flame]

**[} Chapter End {]**

**Hey guys! How's it going?**

Woah, nobody told me there was going to be a cliff here. Fortunately nobody is hanging there.

Man, this Game is proving to be as stressful as the Sitri vs Agares was. At least there will be less strategy. Which I swear is definitely not my intention. I left the game rules to luck.

**FUN FACT:** Yeah, I'm deciding the dice values using actual dices, again.

**See you.**


	24. The Art of Breaking

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Highschool DxD, neither do I own any of the multiple resources that I will use for the story in the form of (but not limited to) references.

**Young Devil Gathering Arc – The Art of Breaking**

**Seth POV**

[Legion: Gluttony of the Flame] Said Walburga's lunatic voice.

[The second match starts, NOW!] The announcer said.

I slammed the end of the scythe into the ground

"Let's play, little dragon!" I said with a grin plastered in my face. This was going to be fun.

[Challenge!] A dome of golden light surrounded the Red Dragon Emperor and me.

[Boosted Gear: Scale Mail!] A Red Dragon Armor with green jewels covered the body of the teen. It had a pair of rocket thrusters at the back that gave a temporary boost of speed and flight, assisted by the retractable Dragon wings that came out of it. In this form, the Red Dragon Emperor could double his power as many times as he wanted, but at the cost of a large amount of stamina and magical power.

We had researched it. We knew all there was to know about it.

"Welsh Draconic Rook!" [Change Solid Impact!] The armor seemed to thicken. We knew this too. A boost of strength and defense at the cost of speed.

I my scythe clashed against his gauntlets and fire engulfed us. This felt amazing. The Deadly Sins had been my way of making Legion usable. Synchronizing with every soul in Soul Warden was practically impossible. So, I made a new reasoning. Why try to synchro with every soul if I can try to do it with just one or two?

The answer to that question was, no reason at all. And so, the Deadly Sins came into being. Gluttony of the Flame was me synchronizing with Walburga. That's when we discovered one nice thing about Legion. It allowed me to use all the abilities the souls had when they were alive. Except Sacred Gears that is.

Like Walburga's Fire affinity.

So, here I was reveling in the battle and throwing fire left and right. It felt amazing.

"Will you stay still for a second? Dammit!" He complained. His Triaina was impressive, I would admit it without problem. But it had a fatal flaw in each and every form. The Rook version, for example, was stupidly slow. It was a piece of cake to dodge his punches.

I swung for the joints in his armor. He tried to dodge as best he could. Which wasn't good enough. I cut right behind his right knee.

"What's the matter little dragon?!" I asked him. "Is this the best the Red Dragon Emperor can do?" I mocked him. He was a shame to the name of Dragons. I would burn him. I would burn him, and I would laugh. I was already laughing.

"You are crazy!" He shouted at me still dodging my scythe.

"Why, thank you!" I replied.

"Welsh Sonic Boost Knight!" [Change Star Sonic!] He sounded desperate. We knew this form too. A weak armor but extra fast. It was perfect. Even if he was a Dragon, that form was so weak my flames would hurt him. "Hot hot hot hot!" As I said, an idiot.

"You really _are_ stupid!" I laughed louder. I covered the entire dome on fire. "Now, what will you do? Will you let the fire consume you?!" I asked. This was fun. He went to the edge of the dome.

"Tch! Welsh Blaster Bishop!" Uh huh, that was the cannon. [Change Fang Blast!]

"Hahahahahaha!" If he thought I would let him charge that cannon, then he was getting more stupid by the moment, in my humble opinion that is. That was the fatal flaw of the Bishop, that cannon took a damn long time to charge. I run up to him as he charged the blaster. He was enduring the flames pretty well. I'll give him that. I swung at his gut with the scythe and smashed him to the dome.

"Gah!" He coughed out blood. "He is strong." He muttered. "I, who is about to awaken." He started. I smashed him to the side.

"If you think I'll let you finish that chant then, how stupid can you get?! Hahahahahaha!" I laughed. That was the fatal flaw of his True Queen, it needed a freaking chant. Interrupt it and he is done. "Do I look like Sairaorg who would let you enter that mode just to fight you at your best?! Nu huh, little Dragon!" I mocked. "I'm a fighter, not a duelist. Now be a good lizard and just burn already." I send a wave of my strongest Flames at him.

"Welsh Draconic Rook!" [Change Solid Impact!] That was probably the smartest decision he made so far. "I can't lose here. I must win. For Rias." He said.

"Hahahahaha, you didn't even notice that you already lost this!" I said out loud. "I wonder what will happen to the team when the little dragon falls!" I asked myself. I charged at him an swung the scythe, Fire still surrounding us. He barely could hold his ground. "They will fall apart like the weaklings they are!" I laughed. He was so damn slow I almost felt bad for him. Almost.

"Don't mock my teammates!" He shouted enraged.

"Stop me, little dragon!" I provoked. I was having fun. He was dancing in my palm. He threw a punch at me. Or tried. I ducked and swung at the joint in his elbow. Another cut. His right leg and left arm were practically useless. "I bet you would like to have that useless nun with you now, wouldn't you?" I asked.

"Don't mock, Asia!" He was getting angry. I loved it. The angrier he was the sloppier and more stupid he became. It was amusing.

"Why not?! What has she done in the Games?! Nothing at all! My little sister is ten times better than that excuse of a Twilight Healing!" I told him. He swung his good arm at me. "You call that a punch?!"

"At least our group has better Oppai!" No, he didn't go there… "Aside from that Onee-sama with pink eyes all of them are flat-chested!"

"You were ogling my girlfriend?" I asked in a low voice, my grin turning cold. "You little dragon…" My hair turned black again, eye switching colors. A fringe of my hair turned white. My eye turned amber. "You messed up."

[Legion: Pride of the Pack] Said the same low eerie voice from the match against Bael.

Wolf heads appeared in my attire, two as shoulder plates, two as gauntlets, two at corner ends of the cloak, one on my chest. The scythe now replaced by the gauntlets with little white flames in the eyes. Everything was black, even the metal parts turned an onix black. The only exception was the head in my chest, it was white.

A growl escaped my mouth as I glared at him. I couldn't see his expression because of the helmet but I'm pretty sure I heard him gulp. I disappeared from where I was and appeared right beside him punching the side of his chest.

The wolves had no special effect as Walburga, Laura or even Filo. But they had numbers, and with numbers came strength. The souls of the wolves seemed to have feed off the souls they banished. They had gotten stronger without me even noticing. Now, when I synchronized with them the boost was amazing.

"I was going to play." My voice much deeper than normal. "We had you figured out." I kicked his right leg, the injured one, from the side. I heard a crack. "Without the True Queen you weren't much of a threat. The Triaina was easy enough. So, I was going to play." I disappeared again and punched the side of his head. Then he took a kick right in the middle of his back.

"But you don't get to insult my comrades, my family." I continued. He tried to punch me, I grabbed his arm and threw him against the ground. He was so slow it was pathetic. He's style was mediocre at best. I wondered if he had a style to begin with.

"And most definitely," I kicked his head against the ground as he tried to stand up. "You don't get to lust after my girlfriend." I put both hands together in the air and hammered his head down again..

[The Bishop of the Gremory team retires.]

"You heard that?" I asked. "That's my sister and my little brother beating that Dhampir." I informed him.

"Bastard… Gah…" He coughed more blood.

"It doesn't feel good, does it?" I asked kicking him to the side so that he was looking up instead of at the ground. "I was there. I was there in the ground once. It wasn't a Game though. I was this close of losing everything." I explained to him. "From that point I trained my ass off so that I would never lose anything." I told him kicking him with all my strength.

He clashed against the dome and slid to the ground. There he was, sitting on the floor leaning against the golden wall. He tried to stand up. Key word, trying. His legs trembled and ultimately failed him as he fell again. Having one of them messed up didn't help. It was a pathetic sight. I wondered if that's what I looked like when Walburga had done a number on me. I probably looked worse.

"How does it feel?" I asked. I deactivated Legion ending up in my normal Balance Breaker. I put the scythe behind his neck. "How does it feel to be defeated by something that's considered a Low-tier Sacred Gear having a Longinus yourself?" I clarified for him.

"Are you having fun?" He asked annoyed.

"Will you have fun when this happens out of the Rating Games?" I asked back. He stayed silent. "What will you do when the one that beats you is someone that wants to kill your peerage members?" I asked. He didn't give any sign of wanting to speak.

"You know what's sad?" I continued. "That I know you are too much of an idiot to even take what I say seriously." I said. We knew him. He was the ultimate idiot. Whatever I say would just fly above his head. "I bet as soon as you recover you will be fooling around watching every breast that crosses your path as the pervert you are."

"I pity you." I finished.

I swung the scythe.

[The Pawn of the Gremory team retires.]

I appeared on the team room. Everyone was looking at me in awe. I took a step before faltering and leaning against the wall. Legion still costed a shit ton of energy, unfortunately.

"You shouldn't have used Pride." A greater number of souls to synchronize wasted a greater quantity of energy. Seek was right to chastise me.

"Nobody ogles my girlfriend." I said simply. She looked like she wanted to continue scolding me but the tinge of pink in her cheeks told me a different thing. "I had to give an example. Who better than the Red Dragon Emperor? Now, no one safe of Maou level people will dare look at you. That's a pity though, I'll have to get to that level soon." I added. She was now with a full-on blush that would have matched Gremory's hair.

"Idiot." She said looking away.

"Your idiot." I said. Then I took a deep breath and walked slowly up to my chair. "How did my little bro and my sister do?" I asked. Liam beamed at me and Brittney gave me a happy smile.

"He tried to stop us both." Brittney started.

"You were right, the Balance Breaker helped ignore it." Liam continued. "I was kind of slow, like when Seek uses her trait on me. But I resisted it. When he saw that I could move he panicked and turned to bats." He added then.

"He couldn't use his gear when he did that. So, I used a weak attack that affected the whole area. He fell pretty easily after that. He couldn't escape no matter what." Brittney finished.

"Amazing, good job, both of you." Liam beamed even more. I saw that Lucie was beaming too. "Did something good happen while I was there?" I asked her.

"You said I was better than their Twilight Healing wielder." She explained.

"Of course, you are," I told her as if she was stupid. "I have seen what you can do. You are awesome, little sister." She could have put the sun to shame right that moment. "They are taking their sweet time now, aren't they?" I asked confused. The other matches had gone much faster.

"Do you think you broke their team?" Dovray asked with an amused expression.

"That would be hilarious." I said with a smirk, Seek shook her head but even she had a small smile on her face.

[Kings, please throw the dices again.] The referee said.

"Finally." Alan said, he was probably eager to go inside.

Three and Five. Eight. This would have been a dangerous one if Hyoudou was still on the Game. As it was, they were out of rooks, they could only send in two Knights or a Knight and the Bishop they still had. I was betting for the Knight combo. I didn't think Gremory was stupid enough to come out now either.

"Ayumi and Dovray." Seek said and I heard Alan groan. I snorted at that. Poor guy, at this rate he wouldn't get to fight.

"Don't worry, Alan. We can spar one on one after this if you don't get to fight." He paled at that and I chuckled.

"No, don't worry, I'm good." He said a little too quickly. I continued chuckling. Everyone was teleported inside.

"Dovray, entertain the Ex-Durandal wielder. Ayumi, go after the Sword Birth and Blade Blacksmith wielder. Buy time for Dovray if you can't beat him." Seek relied her plan. I wasn't sure how it would go in Ayumi's side but Dovray shouldn't have problems dealing with the girl.

[The Gremory team sends in their two Knights while the Agares team sends in their remaining Rook and a Bishop.]

There they stood, the blonde, blue-eyed boy and the bluenette with brown eyes. I rested my head in my hand and smirked. Yeah, Dovray wouldn't have any problems. The expression of the Ex-Durandal said everything.

She was angry.

And that would be her downfall. An angry swordsman, or swordswoman in this case, most of the time was an unfocused one. An unfocused swordsman was worth nothing. She would most definitely do one stupid thing or five during the match.

I just wondered if Dovray would do that annoying trick on the poor girl. Although, seeing it used against someone else could be fun. On second thought, I hoped he would do that.

[The third match starts, NOW!] The announcer said.

[I'll destroy you!] The bluenette charged head in. Yep, easy. Dovray immediately started throwing his knives. The girl had to stop and start blocking the knives with her sword.

She wasn't even using the destructive nature of Durandal. Either she was dismissing the power of the knives, which was idiotic so I wouldn't put it past her, or she didn't have enough control to use it every time she blocked a knife, which was equally possible. It could even be a mix of both too.

I smiled and looked to the side.

Ayumi had been the one to charge on that front.

[Balance Breaker: Glory Drag Trooper] Several knights appeared besides the blonde. They wielded Holy swords and while they weren't as strong as actual Holy weapons they would still hurt a Devil a lot.

Ayumi stopped and put up her guard. _'Good idea, hold your ground and let Dovray help when he is finished.'_ The troopers charged at her together with the Knight. She started to spin forming a Holy Fire dome around her. Holy fire from Incinerate Anthem was definitely better than those poor excuses of Holy swords. They broke on contact with the fire pretty quickly.

That had been a must on Ayumi's arsenal. She needed something to defend herself against numbers and range attacks. And with her inability to use range-based spells of any kind, even with Incinerate Anthem, that didn't leave her with many options. So, we had come up with this. She spun with her arms extended and created fire from them. We had worked on that technique for the whole two months between our last game and this one.

It didn't quite cover all around her, but it covered enough to stop the Knight and his minions. It was difficult for them to attack from above or low enough without getting git by at least a bit of fire. It would be good enough to buy her time.

[Don't you see this is useless?!] I turned to see the wielder of Ex-Durandal still blocking Dovray's knives. I was amazed he still hadn't used it.

[Seth was right.] Dovray commented stopping his barrage of knives. The Knight turned to glare at him. [Your group is filled with power-idiots.] He said simply. The eye of the girl twitched.

[Yeah, sure.] She answered. She was actually admitting it. _That_ was amusing. [But we will still kick your ass.]

[I doubt it.] Dovray said starting to spin a knife at the tip of a finger. [Power-idiots fall pretty easily into traps. As is your case. And I'm a Demiurge, my clan is filled with trap specialists.] The girl looked confused now. Dovray smirked and I matched him.

[Look around you.] He said, and indeed, she was surrounded by knives. She seemed to be a bit on the slow side. It took her three seconds to get what had happened.

[You tricky bastard.] She said and Dovray's eyes narrowed.

[I am, and you are a loser.] He said and activated the knives. The girl was hit by so many different things that I don't even want to narrate them. That would take a long while to do so.

[One of Gremory's Knights retires.]

Dovray turned to see Ayumi still keeping the Knight and his troopers away. The blonde stopped attacking and turned to look in Dovray's direction, shock in his face. These guys were too cocky it seemed. They couldn't believe they were losing, apparently.

Our Bishop started to throw knives at the Knight, which the blonde promptly started avoiding. He didn't block, he was intelligent enough to run away from them. There was a little problem though. He didn't take his minions with him. He probably didn't even consider that they could be the actual target.

[Have fun, Ayumi.] Dovray said and with a flick of his fingers half the troopers exploded.

[Finally, you took your time.] Ayumi stopped spinning and started actually fighting against the minions. They started falling one by one while Dovray kept the Knight occupied. Soon, our Rook was charging at the blonde.

[Balance Breaker: Sword of Betrayal.] The Holy Demonic sword appeared at last. It was an intriguing and interesting weapon. But it wouldn't be enough. Dovray could humiliate him pretty easily if the Knight decided to charge. The moment the guy had been left alone against Dovray, not even counting Ayumi, he had lost.

Dovray was a tricky bastard on his own right. You needed some impressive defense or to overwhelm him with power to be able to do something against him. The Knight had neither.

After a minute Ayumi had cornered him and Dovray set up his knife-based death trap.

[The remaining Gremory Knight retires.]

And like that the third match was ours. They were done already, we knew. They only had a useless Bishop, their Queen and their King. We had so much more. Seek and I smirked at one another.

"Great job." Seek said to the fighters as they appeared in the room.

Lucie started healing Ayumi right that second. The poor Rook was covered in small cuts. The dome of fire wasn't quite as impenetrable as we would have liked after all. But it had done its job. As long as she could come back it was good for us Lucie would take care of it.

[Kings, please throw the dices again.]

Four and Six. Ten. They would definitely send the Queen. They couldn't send their King unless they wanted to lose. I turned to Seek.

"Are you up for it, Seth?" Seek asked and I sighed.

"As much as I would like to say yes… No, I spend more energy than I thought. I will probably be up for next match or the other. Depending on how long it takes." I reported. I needed to get my reserves up, they never seemed to be enough.

"Then it will be Alan, Liam, Britteny and me." She said. "I will slow her down as much as I can. Alan, I'll need you to move me if she gets to shoot anything. Britteny, try to one-shot her. Liam, you go if she isn't down after that." She explained. I nodded. Her not going into the battlefield would have been something I preferred but that was the best strategy. I would have to bear with it.

[The Gremory team sends their Queen to the field while Seekvaira Agares enters the match herself together with her Knight and two Pawns!] The announced said.

[I won't forgive you.] The Queen was definitely pissed.

[The fourth match starts, NOW!] As soon as those words were said a gigantic circle appeared, I front of the Queen. My eyes widened. Seek started to pile Time circles on the raven-haired girl but it wasn't enough. Her magic shot.

[The Pawns of the Agares team retire.] I gripped the edge of the table. Alan had barely been able to move Seek on time to avoid the blow.

[Go, Alan.] Seek said. She was still putting circles on the Queen. Her movements were so slow she was practically frozen. I relaxed. That was the problem with overspecialization. She was slow in speed, with Seek's trait she was nothing. That first shot was everything she had. Alan charged with all his Knight speed and took the girl out. The poor half-Fallen was barely getting her hands up for another attack when he reached her with his sword and keris.

[The Queen of the Gremory team retires.]

I stood up and walked to the circle. As soon as Seek appeared, I stopped her from falling and carried her bridal style to a chair. Using so many circles drained her. I would know, she always did that to me in spars.

"Thanks." She said wearily.

"Anytime, Seek." I kissed her forehead. She would never let me do that if she wasn't so tired. I gave her a cheeky grin when she glared at me.

"Idiot." Her blush took a lot of power out of her glare and insults.

"Good job, Alan." I told the Knight ignoring Seek.

"If I was one second slower, I would be an Ice sculpture right now, wouldn't I?" He said looking nervous. I smirked at him.

"You know me too well." I said. The bitch had taken out my little brother. I wouldn't have anything less than that for her. Alan was lucky he was as fast as he was.

"Seth could you-" Seek started.

"Of course. This is already done, relax." I told her. She was probably too tired to even think. I wasn't her right hand just for show, I could fill for her. Especially considering the situation.

[Kings, please throw the dices again.]

I helped Seek up for a moment. That was something that I simply couldn't do.

Six and Five. Eleven. Gremory was lucky even at this point. She could enter herself together with her last member, the Bishop.

From our side it could be Ayumi, Dovray and Lucie or me. Last match had been too fast. I wasn't quite there yet to face Gremory. As weak as she was I had too little energy. I didn't think I had enough to use normal Balance Breaker for long and if she miraculously survived the first seconds then I would be out. We couldn't let that happen, not now that Seek was almost out.

"Ayumi, Dovray and Lucie." I said and they stood up. "Dovray take out that Bishop as fast as you can. Lucie, block the Power of Destruction as much as you can. Ayumi, try to get past it. Once Dovray is done it should be easy enough. If you can't take her out just stall and make her waste energy." I ordered and they nodded.

[The Agares team sends in their Rook and both their Bishops. Rias Gremory enters the field herself together with her Bishop.] The referee informed, as if it was necessary to say who entered from their side.

The look on Gremory made me smirk. She had the same expression as the Knight and Queen from before. She was pissed. The Bishop looked nervous. That's what you get for bringing someone that doesn't fight. Lucie could say whatever she wanted. She was a fighter. She wouldn't take anyone out, but she was a fighter, nonetheless. It had been a long time since she stopped being afraid of being in fights.

[The fifth match starts, NOW!]

Instantly, Gremory was surrounded by a prison courtesy of Lucie. Dovray shot his knives and a second later the Bishop was being electrocuted until she retired.

[Asia!] The King shouted. My smirk was growing by the second. Gremory started shooting Power of Destruction at the prison. It held on for a couple of seconds. That was enough for Dovray. Ayumi seemed to have been overkill.

Then the crimson-headed teen's eyes widened. She brought her hands to her chest and a second later a wave of Power of Destruction shot in every direction as she spread her arms. She looked like that took its toll out of her, but it had done its mission. The prison was broken and Dovray's trap of knives was gone too.

Ayumi charged with his Holy fire-covered arms in front of her as a barrier. Dovray was setting knives again as Gremory tried her best to destroy them all. When Ayumi was close enough the King sent a stream of power her way. Holy Fire and Power of Destruction clashed against each other. Dovray tried to set knives but Gremory kept sending mini waves around to destroy them. The Bishop looked frustrated.

Then Lucie had a wonderful idea. Block the waves protecting the knives. Sadly, it was a little too late.

[The Agares team's remaining Rook retires.]

Ayumi had burned out her last reserves. Blocking the Knight and his minions seemed to have tired her out more than we thought. Or maybe Gremory was stronger than we anticipated. Now it was up to Dovray and Lucie.

My little sister continued blocking but she was tiring out fast. Having had to block the Valkyrie before and healing several people had exhausted her reserves. She retired a little trying not to get herself taken out.

It was up to Dovray. The Bishop kept throwing knives at Gremory. The girl could do little else than try to destroy all of the Demiurge's death traps. At least until she decided she had enough. She shot a stronger wave of Power of Destruction. Not only did it break the knives, but it also reached Dovray. The Bishop shot back hitting the wall.

[This is for my cute little servants.] The King said sending a ball of energy at Dovray.

[One of the Agares team's Bishop retires.]

[And this is for Ise.] She said lifting her hands up sending a stream of power at Lucie. My little sister brought up a barrier that held up for some long seconds before falling. They had done their job. They had lasted long enough.

[The Agares team's remaining Bishop retires.]

My face was impassive. So was Alan's. So was Seek's. Nobody said anything on the time it took the referee to ask the Kings to throw again. It was only a matter of if I would be able to go in or not. Either Eight or higher.

One and Three. They threw again. Five and Five. I grinned. Ten.

[Rias Gremory enters the Game once again while the Agares team sends in their Queen.]

We glared at one another.

"You took out Ise." She said in a cold tone.

"You took out my brother, my sister and my cute little sister." I said in an even colder tone. My eye turned amber and a fringe of my hair turned white.

[The sixth match starts, NOW!]

[Legion: Pride of the Pack]

I disappeared and appeared in front of her. My fist stroke her in the gut as she covered her hands-on Power of Destruction that soon vanished after she lost concentration. I hit her again in the head and then continued the spin to kick her to the wall with the back of my leg. She hadn't even reached the wall when I smashed my fist against her back once again pushing her to the wall.

"Have you learned your lesson, Gremory?" I asked as I lifted my hand and grabbed her head keeping her up. "No matter how much talent you have. Those who work harder than you will stand on top in the end. Sairaorg should have taught you that." I smashed her head against the wall.

[Rias Gremory retires. Victory for the Agares team.]

I was teleported back to the room. Seek was being teleported to the hospital to recover. She probably had mild magic exhaustion. I started walking to the exit.

"Let's go." I said simply and Alan followed.

"Of course, brother."

**[} Chapter End {]**

**Hey guys! How's it going?**

Aw, men, and women if there are any. I hope this wasn't as shitty as I think it was.

Fights are definitely not my forte. Which makes me wonder why the hell I'm writing in this fandom at all considering there is plenty of fighting here.

Anyhow, leave a review with your opinion. It would be greatly appreciated.

**Finished. **Guys! This is essentially the end of the first volume. I'll publish an epilogue later. Probably much later. And that's because of one reason.

**VOTE!**: The epilogue of this volume will be an award ceremony and maybe some things here and there. There will be rewards for Best Single-Pieced Pawn, Best Multi-Pieced Pawn, Best Knight, Best Bishop, Best Rook, Best Queen and Best King.

I have most of this decided but you could change my mind. Just keep in mind that you must take into account only what has happened during the Rating Games. Also, remember that the only change in canon Games is that Issei lost against Sairaorg.

I hope you don't leave me with no answers as happened with the Polls, that would be sad.

**See you.**


	25. Epilogue

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Highschool DxD, neither do I own any of the multiple resources that I will use for the story in the form of (but not limited to) references.

**Epilogue**

**Seth POV**

"Hi, guys." I said entering the room where everyone was after the Game. This time they even had adapted a place for Iorek to be in the room too. "You were all amazing out there." I said. Liam and Lucie beamed at me. The rest gave me appreciative smiles and nods.

"Second place isn't so bad." Seek said from her bed. Indeed, it wasn't. And the first place being Sairaorg made it acceptable. I would never be able to live with myself if the Oppai Dragon's team was above us.

Fortunately, Sairaorg hadn't lost any Games, so he was first place. Then came our team, who had only lost against him. After that it was Gremory who had won against Sona and Sona herself who hadn't been able to win any Game.

"Good, everyone is here." Came a voice behind me. Ajuka was at the door. "I just came to congratulate you all and tell you that there will be an award ceremony held in a week. The specifics should be sent to you soon." He said.

"Thank you, Ajuka." I said with a smile.

"No Lord Beelzebub this time, huh? You are learning." He said with a smirk. "Although Azazel isn't pleased with you about that little secret of yours." I fought back a wince at that. Yeah, I hadn't told the Fallen Angel Governor about my little Deadly Sins Project.

"Yeah, I wanted it to be a surprise." I said.

"And you know how some people react to surprises." His smirk grew and I groaned.

"I'll deal with that later." I said trying to wave it off.

"If you say so. Take care, everyone. We'll talk some more later, Seth." He waved at everyone and shook my hand. Everyone said their goodbyes to the Maou and he left as fast as he had come. Probably going to research on something or watch the Game again to see what he could get about the Sins and what questions he wanted to ask me when he could. Azazel was probably already on it.

I walked up to Iorek.

"You did it, you oversized puppy." I told him and he barked happily at me, not even getting angry for the name. "There was no shame in today's match, you did amazing." It continued barking excitedly and licking my face as I petted him. Then I turned to Trina and Xander. They didn't look too enthusiastic.

"We were the first ones to retire." Xander said through his teeth as he clenched the sheets in his hands.

"Stop it." I chided him. "No one in this peerage is stupid. So, don't act like one." I told him. "You were against a Valkyrie. Of course, she would kick your ass." I continued. "It's a surprise that you even lasted that long. You should be proud. You held your ground against one of the best warriors the Nordic mythology has. She was so tired after dealing with you that Iorek barely had to try to take her out." Said baby behemoth barked in protest.

"True. We are awesome." Trina said with a smirk and Xander chuckled.

"I couldn't even react." Liam said when I turned to him.

"True." I admitted. "Although, being honest, neither did Brittney and Alan barely could." I pointed out.

"It doesn't matter." I sighed.

"Ok, you can get a tattoo." He nodded resolutely. "After that Seek, Brittney and I will train your reflexes. We can probably add Dovray and Leo with knives too. When you get good enough, we'll get it removed." He seemed to lose some of his determination as he paled. "Afraid?" I smirked at him. He shook his head quickly.

"No, it's ok. I would like that." He didn't sound so sure, but he would do it. He was stubborn like that. I smiled and ruffled his hair as usual.

"I'm ok without that training though." Said a pale Brittney and I chuckled.

"Ok," I said simply. "you did great, both of you. It's a pity you couldn't show more." I told them. Liam beamed and Brittney smiled.

"Thank you." The girl said.

"You don't have to give us a pick-me-up pep talk." Dovray said as soon as I turned to him, Ayumi and Lucie.

"Aw, but I had a good one for you guys." I complained. He only raised an eyebrow at me.

"No need, Seth. We know we are amazing, but you are welcome to point it out of you want." Ayumi told me with a sweet smile. I smirked.

"Na, no need to inflate your egos even more." I told her waving my had in the air. "I will do this though." I walked up to Lucie and hugged her tightly. "I'm so proud of you." I whispered in her ear.

"I wasn't useless, brother." She whispered back with a teary voice.

"You never were, you aren't, and you never will be, little sis." I told her putting my hands on her shoulders.

"Thank you, big bro." She said with a tear falling down her cheek. I smiled at her and wiped it off.

"Anytime." I said. Then I turned to Seek. "I was thinking about going to a nice restaurant tonight, what do you say?" I asked with a smile.

"With everyone else, I guess?" She asked with a small smile.

"Unfortunately." I said with a dejected voice. I think I heard one or some of them protest at that. "But we can get our own table, can't we?" I proposed and her smiled widened.

"Sounds like a good pl-… I'd like that." She corrected. I grinned at her. She really didn't like our dates to be considered anywhere near the word 'plan'. "Now, go. I know you have something to do." I gave her an appreciative smile.

"I'll be back as soon as I can." I said and went out. Then I walked through the halls with a lump in my throat. I knew I shouldn't feel bad but… I couldn't help it. They didn't deserve anything like that.

When I found the door, I stood in front of it for a minute. With a deep breath my hand took the handle and opened it slowly. Every eye in the room turned to me. I instantly could feel the coldness in the air, and I took another deep breath before bowing.

"I'm deeply sorry for the way I acted during the Game." I told the Gremory team.

"You didn't seem to care during the whole thing." I heard the voice of a girl. The Knight I think it was.

"I was using an aspect of my Sacred Gear. I synchronize with a soul inside it to get more power. The first one was Walburga, she is an ex-member of Khaos Brigade and a little crazy in the head. She is very… violent. The second is a pack of wolves, so I don't think I have to explain that one." I explained to them. "It's really no excuse because I did so willingly, but I hope you can forgive me." I said. I kept looking down. I didn't want to offend the Gremory, Sirzechs Lucifer formerly known as Sirzechs Gremory was a Maou, and nobody wanted a Maou as an enemy.

"It's ok." I heard and I looked up to see the Red Dragon Emperor. "A lot of what you said hurt… But I saw it during the last part of our… match." He was looking down to his sheets. "You were right… I've been fooling around. Thank you for the wake-up call." He said and he forced a smile my way.

"Look after your people Red One." I said simply and he nodded. "Also," I turned to Gremory and Akeno, my magic leaking around me almost freezing the room. "Next time be gentler with my little sister and little brother… Or I'll freeze you." My eye narrowed and I saw them gulp before nodding. Was that a blush in the Queen's face? I must have been seeing things. "Take care. I guess I'll see you during the award ceremony." I dispelled the aura and said casually. Gremory still looked a bit pale as she nodded again. "See you."

**[}-o-{]**

"We are meeting here to announce the results of the Rating Games of the Young Devils Gathering." Lucifer said during the meeting a week after our match against Gremory. I noticed he had said 'results' and narrowed my eyes. "But first I would like to point out that each and every one of you has proved the Underworld your worth and strength throughout the Games that have been held." I wondered if he also meant the Diodora vs Gremory fiasco.

"But now the time to prove has come to an end. Now it's time to have your achievements rewarded." He continued. "First and foremost, I want to congratulate Sairaorg Bael and his peerage for achieving the first place in the Tournament." There was a lot of clapping and cheering at that. Sairaorg had quickly stopped being the 'failure of the Great King's family'. That fact had been proven during the first Game and had only being made clearer during the others.

The whole team walked up to the Maou to receive the trophy in the form of a King piece with a Queen half its size fused on its right side and tiny versions of the other pieces around the base. The Pawns in front, the Knights and Bishops on the sides and the Rooks on the back corners.

"Now, the award for Best Single-Piece Pawn," _'So, there are awards for every piece?'_ I thought to myself. "goes to the Sand Guardian, Liam O'Brein." I turned with a smirk to see my little brother's stunned expression.

"Congratulations, little bro." I told him breaking him from his stupor. He blushed slightly and walked all too nervously up the to the stage. A minute later he was standing in front of the Bael peerage with a medal on his chest. It was amusing to look at him squirm under the attention.

I wondered if he was prouder of the award or of his nickname being similar to mine.

"For the Best Multi-Piece Pawn," Lucifer started again. "The Prison Dragon King, Genshirou Saji." Now, that came as a surprise. Even the public took a second to process that.

After a few seconds I understood. The Vritra wielder had been impressive, even more impressive than Hyoudou if one considered that he only had four Pawns in him. In his match against Gremory he had taken out Hyoudou, however treacherously the method had been done. Then he had held his ground against me and going even further he had been key for one of the biggest schemes of that Game. Then he had definitely showed off during the match against Bael.

Hyoudou was more powerful and impressive? Yes, nobody was going to argue against that. But nobody could argue against the fact that he took up twice as many pieces as the Vritra holder.

There was also the fact that everyone knew that Hyoudou was a power figure. And that could be the reason for these awards. To point out power figures. The Sitri Pawn had been overlooked, now he wouldn't. If someone had any doubts those had flown out the window. He was a remarkable individual, indeed.

"Both awards are for the sole reason that both of you have proved that even those with low potential can climb up to the level of those with high ones. The Pawn often overlooked and often referred as the sacrificial piece. You two have proved that even someone as simple as a Pawn can step up and face greatest dangers than anyone would think they could." The Maou explained and both Pawns swelled with pride.

"Now, for the award of Best Knight," Lucifer started once again. "we call the Holy Demonic Prince, Yuuto Kiba to the stage." The blond either wasn't surprised or got over it quickly. I honestly wasn't surprised myself.

Alan was good, but he hadn't showed off that much during the games. Astaroth didn't even count probably, and if he did, his game had been so easy it shouldn't. During the Sitri Game he had been taken out by an ambush and during the Bael one he had taken advantage of a simple strategy. As for the Gremory Game, he had taken out a super slowed foe, not that impressive either.

As for the other Knights, Quarta, also from the Gremory team was impressive with her Ex-Durandal. But Kiba had proved that he could wield Durandal too, maybe better than her, during the Sitri Game. And she had even worse control over Ex-Durandal.

The Bael team's Knights were a step below him and there wasn't even a point in mentioning the Sitri Knight.

"The Best Bishop award goes to the Trap Master, Dovray Demiurge." He announced, no surprise there either. Everyone clapped as they did with all the others, except there was no pause like the Sitri Pawn had caused. I slapped Dovray's back as he passed in front of me.

"Congratulations." I said.

"I'll see you up there." Was his reply. I had to shake my head at that. He didn't have a grain of doubt in his voice.

"Both of them awarded for showing that technique can stand against strength. That even when the outcome seems obvious an ace up your sleeve, one last trick, can change the whole battle." The Maou said. "Now, for the Best Rook award, we call to the stage the Battle Valkyrie, Rossweisse." Was the next announcement. "For showing the role of a true Rook, to stand proud and immovable until the very end. To be the unshakable force of the peerage and shield to the King."

While I would have liked to argue that Iorek was better. Truth is, I wasn't sure. Beside that, there was the fact that Iorek had had some really bad luck during the first Games, those in which he participated that is. The Gremory Game had redeemed him but not enough apparently. The other Rooks were more or less the same.

"The Best Queen award goes to the Ice Guardian," I was shocked the public didn't even let the Maou finish the announcement before cheering, even louder than the other times. "the Warden of Dragons, Seth JEROME!" Lucifer had to start shouting because people were going crazy. I was more surprised by the reaction of the public than by the award. I slowly went up the stage and the Maou put the medal on my chest, then I stood next to the Valkyrie.

"And last, but definitely not least, the Best King award goes to, the Lion King, the Strongest Youth, SAIRAORG BAEL." The people reacted pretty much the same way they did with me. It was difficult to tell if it was louder so, I wouldn't know.

"Both of them," His back was facing us, but I would swear I could _hear_ a smile on Lucifer's face. Which was shocking considering his next words. "awarded for teaching us that hard work will stand on top of talent in the end." My eyes widened and I had to make conscious effort to keep my jaw from falling. Those were the words I had said to his sister during our Game.

"Congratulations to every one of the awarded."

An even more shocking thing happened after the ceremony was over. The Maou took everyone of the awarded together with, Hyoudou, Himejima, Shinra and Abaddon to another room and told us some pretty surprising news. We were all going to be tested in order to advance to Mid-Class Devils.

"So, we are closer, huh?" Leonardo said when I told him the news. "A step closer, my King."

**[} End {]**

**Hey guys! How's it going?**

Thank you so much for following this story. I remember when I first started it. I thought to myself 'yeah, with a side character as unimportant as Seekvaira I won't have followers at all' and now you all proved me wrong with over **200** followers and an average of **650** views per chapter.

Not to mention that I barely got any bad reviews. That was even more of a shock. I expected people flaming me left and right. Instead I got people encouraging me and some of you, Maou bless your souls, left me really long reviews that were just awesome.

Some of you I just had to see your nicknames and a smile immediately appeared in my face.

**Truly, thank you for all the support.**

Now, I'm not sure when this story will come back. It'll probably take a long time. But I'll leave a little **TEASER** right here of **Volume 2: Another Side – Rise of the King.**

**See you.**

**[} Teaser {]**

"Those are cousins of yours, aren't they?" I asked breaking a cold sweat.

I received an affirmative answer.

"And that's an aunt or uncle, right?" I asked dread filling me.

Another affirmative answer.

"I don't think I like your family, buddy."

The baby behemoth beside me whimpered in fear. As we saw the massive beasts in the distance.

An adult behemoth and its half-grown children were definitely not something I was looking forward to facing.

**[} Teaser End {]**

Please leave a review telling me what you think about the story or any doubts about what has happened so far. I'll probably publish a chapter answering them sometime in the future.


	26. Announcement

**Hey guys! How's it going?**

The sequel is out people. What the hell are you doing here? Go there, read and leave a review.

**See you.**


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